Make Things Right
by J.Dex
Summary: John's fate was never revealed after the Alcatraz incident. It is now, just like the feelings he once held for a certain Ice mutant. And now that he's back, he won't be able to hide his feelings any longer, but what happens when certain events around him drifts him further away from his love? SLASH! BobbyxJohn.
1. Prologue

** Prologue**

Almost a year had passed ever since the Alcatraz incident. The Brotherhood had long gone disbanded after Magneto was cured, even though everyone knew it was only for a short time. The members of the former villainous group had gone on their separate ways. Mystique was still fuming on Magneto abandoning her, and now works as a trusted government spy and agent, despite the crimes she had committed before. Juggernaut was locked up again in a cell, although this time it was more secured compared to the moving prison he was held on before. James Madrox a.k.a. Multiple Man had escaped prison, and was now on the run somewhere across the country. John Allerdyce, on the other hand, was presumed dead. His body was never recovered after the Alcatraz incident. So everyone presumed he died when Dr. Jean Grey's alter-ego was unleashed.

But he wasn't dead. He never was.

He managed to wake up after the incident and was stuck between huge stones. His clothes were torn, and the lighter on his palm was destroyed. He felt numb under the huge stone, praying to God that someone with a huge heart will find him. And alas! There was! A man, with raven hair and pale blue eyes, found him under the stone after a few days.

He had never been that grateful to someone ever since he was born.

The man's name was Jeremy Frimwell, also a mutant. He was around his age, and has the ability to lift objects with his mind, just like the ability Ms. Grey had. Jeremy was a kind man. He lifted the stone above John and helped him escape and recover. He gave John clothes and money. He knew who John Allerdyce was, but didn't call the police to get him. John was forever in debt for Jeremy's kindness and asked if there was a way to repay him back. Jeremy said he doesn't have to repay him back, because he can't offer John a roof over his head but John insisted. Jeremy just smiled at him and said those two words that John will never forget.

_Just survive._

And there he was, John Allerdyce, holding on to what Jeremy had said while he was wandering around the streets of Boston. It was the last place he wanted to be, since the place only brought back not-so-good memories about events and people, and by people he specifically meant a certain ice mutant.

John was probably lying to himself when he's going to say that he didn't miss his former bestfriend, Bobby Drake, when in fact he did, and he woke up every damn day when he was in the brotherhood remembering his former bestfriend's look when he left the jet.

The look that until now John didn't understand.

It's not as if his former archenemy-slash-bestfriend would miss him, John thought. If anything, the ice mutant would be so damn happy that he left. Bobby always had the tendency to hate or ignore the things that didn't fit his idealistic point of view of how things in his almost perfect life should be.

Being gay is one of the things that didn't go well in the ice mutant's head.

He remembered the day he told Bobby of his little secret, just 3 months before the attack at the mansion. The look of pure hatred and disgust was planted in the ice mutant's face the second he told him about it. It was the time where Bobby started giving John the cold shoulder and venomous glares. John had tried to talk to Bobby about it, but the ice mutant chose to ignore it. Bobby would always come up late at night when he thinks John was already asleep. Bobby made John feel alone.

And John hated being alone. He was kicked out of their house at a young age when his parents found out he was a mutant. He strolled along the streets of New York, alone and without anyone there with him. Bobby knew of his backstory, and he also knew that John hated being alone. Yet his former bestfriend ignored him, and chose to leave John by himself.

It wasn't until the attack at the mansion John and Bobby talked again, the look of pure worry and concern on his besfriend's face when he asked John on where his girlfriend was. John just hoped that even just for a little, Bobby would also be a bit concern about him.

It was then that John realized that he was falling in love with his bestfriend. He felt afraid of his feelings, knowing that he fell for the person who he knew would never return his feelings. But he was even more terrified of Bobby's reaction to his feelings. He decided to keep it to himself, ignore it until his feelings fade away. But it didn't, the more that he looked at Bobby and Marie's direction, the aching feeling of jealousy would bubble up inside him, eating him away.

Until he couldn't stand it anymore.

He left the jet. He made a promise to himself that he would lock away the feelings forever. But it wasn't as easy as he thought it was. The day on the attack at Alcatraz, a feeling of dread washed over him, knowing that his former bestfriend would be there. And if fates didn't hate him enough, it also decided to send Bobby his way.

He tried to step back, but he wasn't a coward. The feelings that were stored inside him were unleashed, just like the fire that tickled his palm and fingertips. Their elements met in the middle with hissing noise. John hid his locked away feelings with anger. The fact that his bestfriend would always hate and despise him fired up this anger. The flame then started overpowering the ice mutant as it grew with raging hunger.

But the anger wasn't enough.

He stood in front of Iceman, the other mutant kneeling in front of him as he tried to stop himself from getting burned. John felt a bubble of pride as he felt the other mutant cowering below him. Just as he felt pair of frozen hands hold his wrist, the hands freezing his wrists down to his palm. His freezing hold made John terrified. The ice mutant stood up in front of him, his whole body frozen, made of ice, just like the death stare he was giving John. The fire mutant held the stare, only his were more afraid instead of hatred. He was about to return an equally terrifying death stare when the ice mutant's head came crashing down to his, slamming his forehead to John's, knocking down the fire mutant. Though not until he heard what ice mutant said,

_You never should have left._

The words haunted John until now. What could that mean? John would ask himself. Does that mean Bobby didn't want him to leave? He couldn't see any other meaning in Bobby's words. But if there was, he doubted that it would be a good thing.

John sighed to himself, the thoughts of Bobby was only hurting him more. He already made a promise to himself that he would change. A new life was awaiting him, a second chance to make things right in his life. Jeremy had told him that if he made things right, his life would be peaceful and amazing. John wanted that kind of life. He wanted to start again and correct his mistakes.

The only thing is, he just doesn't know where to begin.

* * *

**A/N: Hey! This is a story I'm working on for now and it'll be set after _X-Men: The Last Stand. _I will introduce several new characters, some of them from the comic books, and one of them is my own. It will be slash! BobbyxJohn!**

**Oh! And please, I've already re-read this thing for over a hundred times and if there are still spelling mistakes please do tell me. Also, you can tell me if there are grammar mistakes too, English is not my first language.**

**And, if there are other things I need to work on, you guys can tell me. I'm still a beginner writer here.**

**Thanks!**


	2. The Fortunate Life

**Chapter 1**

**The Fortunate Life of St. John Allerdyce**

Happy wasn't the word that someone would dare use to describe John Allerdyce's story, fortunate, maybe, but not happy. He was never happy with his life. It was already hard enough being a mutant, but being gay?

Now that's a whole new different story.

Being the two things the society despises was very difficult. You had to live in the shadows because you don't want anyone knowing you're a mutant, or you had to be alone forever, knowing that if you were stuck with too much guys around, you fall in love with one of them.

Or at least, that was what John had experienced.

No one else had known about his little secret, aside from Bobby of course, who was obviously too homophobic look past his former bestfriend's sexuality. John didn't know if the Professor knew about it before he died, but other than both of them, no one else knew.

And he wanted to make sure no one else will.

He was strolling around the streets of Boston, hoping to get away from the city that still brought nightmares. He was looking for some kind truck drivers who would be able to help him get away from the city. But so far, the drivers only gave him the finger. The kindest one of those drivers actually stopped, until he opened the door of the truck. And then the driver gave him the finger and sped off.

He only hoped there was some weird miracle from whoever was above that would give him some sort of transportation away from the city. It worked the last time. Who says it's not going to work now?

So he waited. He waited and waited and waited and waited. But nothing came. He gave up and started to walk away when—

"Get the hell away!" There came a familiar voice behind him. Instinctively, John turned around and saw a familiar shade of dark hair.

"James?" he muttered. But James aka Multiple Man didn't hear him. He just sped past John and continued running, carrying a huge bag over his shoulder.

Three guesses on what that contained.

John stumbled sideward as his shoulder hit Multiple Man's, but didn't have time have to react as more people came pushing past him, wearing familiar blue uniforms. Thank the heavens that John had decided to pull up his hoodie today, or he would be the next one to be chased by these calorie-filled people who call themselves police.

The police chased after Multiple Man, who obviously was out stealing again. John cursed his curiosity as he followed the police subtly. No one should know that the infamous Brotherhood member John Allerdyce was in the same town as James Madrox. He didn't want to get dragged in one of James's careless crimes.

John followed them to a deserted building downtown, seeing a bunch of police cars in front of it. Up on the rooftop, was the multiplying mutant, waving his hands in the air. Gunshots echoed throughout the whole street, making John and the other curious onlookers duck while some of the people screamed.

The gunshots echoed for no longer than a minute, looking up, there were now three James on the rooftop, waving their hands, taunting the police. John saw several of the officers subtly enter the abandoned building, helmets and bulletproof vests covering their body.

John looked up again at the (probably) clueless Madrox, who split again to more. John looked down at the police. Then back at Madrox. To the police then—what was _that_?

Down at the street, at the side of a building hidden in an alley was a silhouette of a person, who looked like who was also carrying what Multiple Man had—Oh.

John looked up at the duplicates on the rooftop as they continued to harass and taunt the police. Now he knew what Madrox was up to, John thought. And if he was going to be asked, it was rather clever of James to use a huge distraction as an escape.

John went back to where he came from, but turned around the street, going to the other side of the buildings. And just as he thought, Multiple Man was there, riding a car, probably a stolen one, as he went to the other side of the town. He didn't know what possessed him, but due to his nature on acting on impulse, John ran and followed the car.

He was just sprinting for just a matter of five minutes when exhaustion began to eat him. James's car had been long gone and was probably already a mile away. John had decided to let it go, it was not as if he had a plan when he finally caught up with the other mutant anyway.

Though his head suddenly snapped up when he heard an unmistakable noise of an engine purring. A very familiar noise to him, John noticed. The sky was suddenly filled with huge storm clouds, lightning and thunder was unmistakably seen and heard. But that didn't stop John, the sound of the engine was still there, not loud, but was still heard to anyone's attentive ears. He continued to scan the storm cloud filled sky, the feeling of anxiety of seeing _him_ again bubbling inside of John.

And just as the wind began to pick-up he saw the familiar figure of the X-Jet, going to the place where John had seen James go.

But his thoughts weren't at the fact that Jamie was about to be caught. His thoughts were narrowing as he thought about who were inside the X-Jet.

The X-Men.

_Bobby._

* * *

**A/N: Chapter 2 will be longer. I promise!**


	3. Big Surprise

**Chapter 2**

**Big Surprise**

To say that everyone was tensed was the biggest understatement of the year. Everyone knew what they were facing against James Madrox, a national criminal, famous for robbing huge banks and breaking and entering in casinos back in Vegas. They all used to underestimate him the first time they faced against him.

And damn, was it the biggest regret the X-men committed.

Even Logan was tensed, the last time he faced against the multiplying mutant he was electrocuted after accidentally touching a live wire that was thrown against him. All of them were easily overpowered by Multiple Man's ability, everyone ending up either unconscious or standing alone against a million. But this time was probably making them more anxious than usual.

Madrox was a robber, though he usually leaned to a more quiet and clean job. But this time, the troops of police that were found in the building that he used as a decoy was enough proof that Multiple Man meant trouble.

Something the X-men dreaded.

The whole team, consisted of Logan, Piotr, Kitty, Warren, Bobby, and a new recruit named Jeremy, sat as Storm and Hank briefed the whole situation to them. The police had long gone discovered the fact that the whole taunting in the rooftop was just a decoy and had started scanning the whole city. The X-men would be helping too, and had already found the original James, thanks to the powerful telepathy of Jeremy. They just didn't want to tell the police, unlike the last time, in hopes that a fight wouldn't break out and that once they managed to corner the Multiplying Mutant, he would come willingly to them.

So hopefully, for peacefulness's sake, Multiple Man would not put up a huge fight, or Alcatraz: The Sequel would happen.

Everyone sat listening as the two revealed the plan, brainstorming ways they could corner the Multiplying Mutant without being overpowered, unconscious, or electrocuted, as Logan added.

Their planning soon ended though, when Jeremy stood up, his eyes pale blue eyes glowing. Everyone stood on instinct, and when Hank was about to ask what was wrong, an explosion came to the right wing of the jet.

"Fuck," Logan cursed, seeing two missiles hitting the jet.

"I'm going to land the jet! Fasten your seatbelts!" came the strict voice of Storm. Everyone obeyed, stumbling to their seats.

Bobby ran to the seat nearest to him, which was just near the damaged wing. He looked at his right seeing three more missiles heading his way. "Guys, look out!"

The missiles stopped inches near the window, the three turning around and launched to the ground, hitting the huge horde of Multiple Men on it.

Knowing instinctively who did it, Bobby released a huge sigh of relief and tried to turn around despite the huge seatbelt. "Thanks," he muttered in between breaths.

"Don't mention it," Jeremy replied and then looked over to the front. "The real one's still there!" he shouted, getting the others' attention.

Logan was the first to stand up, quickly unbuckling his seatbelts. "Then no time for girl talks, ladies! Let's get goin'"

Everyone moved with swiftness, unbuckling their seatbelts. Logan was already at the ramp, waiting for everyone. "Hey, Angel! I need a pair of wings over here."

Angel nodded, moving behind Logan and grabbed his leather suit. The ramp opened, as he and Angel jumped to the air, with Jeremy following behind them. Kitty grabbed Colossus in the arm as they phased from the floor down. Iceman looked as everyone went out from the jet to the battlefield. Following, he looked at the pilot seats, seeing Beast and Storm trying to balance the jet.

"Are you guys going to be okay?" Bobby asked.

"We will! We just have to land this damn thing down!" Hank said, his distress obvious in his voice as they tried to get the jet in a balance.

Bobby nodded, and then jumped to the sky, making an ice trail in front of him to the ground where he slid down, joining the battle that was against the horde made up of duplicates of James Madrox.

**o-o-o-o-o**

John hid behind the bushes as the X-men came down from the X-jet either by pair or alone. He watched as Logan came down with a familiar blond he figured was Warren Worthington, the latter propelling to the ground and then pulling up in the last minute just as Logan landed his feet to the ground. Angel came hovering in the sky as he tried to evade the missiles being shot at him.

The next was a raven haired mutant John didn't recognize, but maybe because of his distance from the other mutant. The dark-haired guy, as John nicknamed, jumped from behind the jet and came hovering in the sky covered in a light blue glow surrounding his body.

Colossus and Kitty fell from the middle of X-jet next, the former turning metal just in time as he shifted their positions with Kitty on top of him, riding his back. The tin man came down the ground with a loud thud, the phasing mutant sliding down from his broad back to the ground next to Logan, who had his claws in full display.

John's anxiety was literally obvious if anyone was to see him. He was waiting for a specific mutant, a mutant who was still about to come out of the jet. He looked back at the jet, waiting for the ice mutant to come out and make his grand entrance. He felt his foot tap impatiently, looking for signs when gun shots were heard from the whole area.

John looked at the scene as he hid from the bushes. Worthington flew past the horde as he grabbed guns from several James and flied back to the air, holding a pistol in both of his hands, firing at the James below him. Kitty phased to several James, also grabbing guns and firing them at the James near her. Colossus was sprinting running through the crowd, throwing the duplicates in the air as soon as they come in contact with the tin man. Wolverine, as usual, was scratching the duplicates with his claws. The new mutant was hovering near the jet, stopping the missiles and bullets from hitting it.

It was then that John realized that the X-jet's right wing was on fire, and whoever was piloting it was trying to balance it and land it down. He stared at the flames that were burning to the right wing. His hands fisted on his side as he tried to minimize the flame. He felt the fire calm down a little, going small, much to his relief.

It was then that he noticed the dark-haired mutant's gaze on him, and whether or not he knew of his presence, John didn't know. He was about to stare back at the dark-haired mutant when a flash of blue entered the scene.

_Bobby_.

John looked from the door of the jet, a trail of ice coming from behind as he noticed the Ice mutant's frame sliding down the ice, landing gracefully on the ground. The ice mutant wasted no time in cliché poses his other teammates did, throwing light-blue balls from his palms. Iceman threw them in all directions, one of them, hitting the trunk of a tree near John.

The fire mutant quickly went to see the damage that had hit the tree. His hands trailing on the light-blue covering that felt cold in his skin. _Ice_. John grinned to himself as he looked at the scene in front of him, his eyes automatically searching for the ice mutant's frame, who currently had his hands stretched outwards, light-blue beams sprouting out from his palms to the James in front of him, freezing the duplicates.

John forced his gaze away from Bobby, noticing that the jet was already landing somewhere. Looking over at its right wing, he noticed that the flame grew bigger. Concentrating, he tried to control the huge flame that was obviously overpowering the pilots. But it had been a while since he tried to use his ability this far. The only time he was using it was when he needs a heater during the cold winter nights. His fists clenched, concentrating harder. He could already feel the heat of the flame in his head, the fire melting the metal as it came in contact with the destructive flame. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to control the fire.

"_If you're planning on extinguishing the fire, then I suggest you go near the jet. You can control it better when you're near it,"_ came a very familiar voice in John's head, his head automatically turning to the battle in front of him, his dark brown eyes coming into contact with pale blue ones, who were currently staring at him.

Being able to place that voice and face, John silently gasped when understanding dawned to him. "Jeremy?" he murmured, disbelief evident in his voice.

"_Good to know you still remember me. But no time for hello's now do we? I'm currently busy. But please, if you're really planning to help, go near the jet, if not, well either you can leave or stare at Bobby. Just promise me that you won't help Multiple Man,"_ his face burning with embarrassment, John glared at Jeremy's direction, who was now back on fighting off missiles and gun shots.

John tore his glare away from the telekinetic and moved his gaze to the X-Jet, which was now landing on the ground. _"Fine,"_ he said in his head, hoping that the other mutant would've heard it.

Quickly running away from the battlefield, John faintly heard Jeremy's "thanks" as he tried to find the gigantic jet. Looking up, he saw a trail of black smoke coming out in the middle of the woods. Well that wasn't so hard, John thought.

But convincing the Bobby and the others that he was back on their side, now THAT was hard.

**o-o-o-o-o**

Bobby froze the incoming missile that was about to hit the unfocused telekinetic. Turning to Jeremy, he noticed that the mutant's eyes were looking elsewhere. Unconsciously following his gaze, the ice mutant noticed that there was a person hiding in the bushes.

"BOBBY, LOOK OUT!" the ice mutant's head snapped back just in time to see bullets inches to his face, dropping to the ground quickly. Releasing a huge breath, Bobby went back to the battlefield as he sent a silent message to Jeremy.

"_Thanks."_

Not receiving any kind of response, Bobby turned back to the fighting, freezing off the horde of James who tried to get near him. Turning around, in front of him, was a duplicate firing his gun aimed at him. Bobby unconsciously stepped back, his body enveloping itself with ice as the bullets came in contact with his frozen chest. Looking back at the James, he held his hand out to him, a shard of ice coming out of his palm, hitting the duplicate straight in the chest.

The battle was starting to heat up, everyone noticed it. Luckily for them, they're still aware and awake despite the amount of the duplicates they were fighting off. Logan and Piotr already made their "Frisbee" technique, as everyone named it, wherein Logan would be thrown to the horde by Piotr, his claws out as he spins around the duplicates like a Frisbee.

Everyone was busy fighting the duplicates around them that none of them noticed the silhouette in the woods sped off, besides Bobby of course, who shouted, "The real James is escaping!"

This gathered everyone's attention, turning to look at Bobby, who pointed at the direction of the woods.

"Dammit," Logan cursed, running to the woods. "C'mon, people!"

Everyone obeyed, except Jeremy, who had his eyes widen. "WAIT!" he called. Everyone looked shocked at Jeremy's outburst, while Logan looked like he could kill.

"What is it now?" he growled.

"T-That's not James! That's just a…..erm…a-an onlooker!" Jeremy explained, who looked a bit panicky.

"An onlooker?" Kitty questioned, looking at Jeremy to Bobby, then back at Jeremy, not knowing who to believe.

"You're lying! I saw it with my eyes!" Bobby shouted. "And I know that you knew there was someone there! You saw it, too! So why didn't you tell us? Are you helping Multiple Man?" he accused, narrowing his eyes at Jeremy.

"Of course not!" Jeremy denied. "I know that there was a person there! But I didn't say anything because the real James is he—_Fuck!_" he stopped abruptly, looking at the horde, who were running away. Wanting to get away from their prying eyes, Jeremy flew towards to the Multiple Men. "C'mon, guys! I could feel the real one's there!" he called back, continuing to fly while everyone looked torn, not knowing who to believe.

Logan sniffed the air. "There is some familiar scent in here," he said, looking at his teammates. "Kitty, Pete, you two go with Jeremy. And the three of us," he paused pointing at himself, Bobby, and Warren, "we'll go looking for whoever that was."

The rest nodded at their tasks, Kitty and Pete taking off, following Jeremy. Logan turned to Bobby as soon as the two took off, "Where did you see that guy?"

Bobby pointed at the direction of the woods. "There," he muttered, running towards the place as soon as the word escaped his lips, the two following behind him.

**o-o-o-o-o**

Jeremy silently cursed at himself. Of course Bobby noticed, he thought, he was looking at the same direction too! Continuing to fly off the direction Multiple Man had ran to, he didn't notice the two other mutants just behind him until the taller of the two spoke.

"Where'd he run off?" Snapping back to attention, he noticed that Kitty and Piotr were already behind him.

Pointing forward, he said. "That way, his duplicates started merging when he ran off, so the possibility that the real James is with them is high," looking back behind him he noticed that they were the only ones following him. "Where are the others?"

"We split up," Kitty answered. "The others are going to the woods where Bobby saw the other guy," she added after a pause.

Cursing at himself, Jeremy sped up, leaving the other two to catch up with him. Looks like John's gonna have a hard time, he thought, smirking at the look the fire mutant will have on his face when he sees Bobby. It will be priceless, and he would kill anyone, even Magneto, just to see it.

Catching up with the telekinetic mutant, the other two looked at each other in unison, noticing the devilish smirk their friend was wearing. Luckily though, both were smart enough to know not to question what the other mutant was thinking…especially when the mutant they were talking about sometimes had his own…_evil_ tendencies.

**o-o-o-o-o**

John followed the trail of black smoke, feeling anxious on about who he was going to see as the pilots. Remembering that there were two pilot seats, he tried to recall which X-Men weren't at the fight earlier. Storm wasn't there, so she could be a pilot, that blue furred ambassador, and then there was…

_Marie_

Oh God. His eyes widening at who the last person might be, John started hoping that at least she wouldn't be there, just remembering her name made the Goosebumps in the back of his neck stand up, the feeling of life getting drained from him returning, just like the last time he felt her hand on his lower leg.

Paling a little at the thought of meeting Bobby's girlfriend again, John started having second thoughts. Asking himself if he really wanted to help the X-Men, since as far as he knew Marie held grudges until she dies, and nobody escapes her when she goes looking for revenge. Her motto, as John could remember was: _"If karma won't slap you now, I will."_

And just the thought of her hand in his cheek made a chill run down his spine.

Involuntarily shuddering at the things Marie would possibly do to him when she finds out that he's alive, John didn't notice he was already at the open field where the jet had landed, too horrified to even pay attention to his surroundings. His rational thoughts became jumbled in his head as his brain thought in full-detail the creative ways Rogue could torture him.

"John?" the voice startling him, John blurted out the first thing that registered properly in his head.

"PLEASE DON'T LET MARIE TOUCH ME!"

Realizing what he just said, he looked up, noticing that he was staring too much into space that he was already across the open field and that he just passed the X-Jet and the gapping X-Men.

Which doesn't include Marie, and thank the heavens for that, John thought.

Looking back at Storm and Dr. McCoy, with slight embarrassment, John noticed that the other two were gapping at him like a fish. "What?!" he inquired.

Getting over a little at his shock, the doctor looked at John as if he was a ghost. "John Allerdyce," Hank whispered. "You're alive?" he managed to get out after a long silence.

John scowled, feeling insulted. So they also thought he was dead? He asked in his head. Well they should know better because it would definitely take more than just a couple of huge boulders to kill him, he ranted in his head. Pushing back his thoughts, he looked at the two people in front of him. "What? Just because my body wasn't found in Alcatraz doesn't mean I'm dead, you know?" he said.

"But…how?" Storm asked.

John was about to explain to them about how he managed to survive when something hit him. The person who helped him was Jeremy Frimwell, and as far as he figured, was current member of the X-Men. And with Storm and Hank's reactions on his seemingly miraculous survival, he wasn't even sure if the X-Men wanted him alive, and letting it loose that Jeremy helped him a lot in his survival wasn't something he should slip. He couldn't let Jeremy get kicked off the team, or worse, land up in prison with him.

John brought himself back in the real world after his little train of thought, realizing that the two in front of him were giving him questioning looks. Simply shrugging he said, "It's sort of a long story." And in hopes of changing the topic, he intentionally looked up, looking at the damaged wing. "Oh! It looks like you don't need my help after all!" he said, his surprise written in his face when he saw the fixed yet burnt wing.

The other two in the open field became more surprised if that was possible, the fact that John Allerdyce, a former Brotherhood member and Magneto's other right hand, clearly implied that he was willing to help them was something they don't hear every day. Then again, seeing someone that was presumed dead after almost a year was something they don't see every day. Yet those two things at the same day and time? Hell must've suddenly frozen over.

John again noticed the way they were looking at him, and this time he made his annoyance really unhidden. "Seriously, if you two are still over the edge about my unlikely survival…get over it!" he said, rolling his eyes.

The looks didn't end, much to John's dismay. Shouldn't they be attacking him by now? John thought. Making an exaggerated sigh, John raised both of his hands in a defensive motion. "Look I—"

Whatever John was about to say was suddenly cut off, his face suddenly slapping the ground in just a second. "OW!" he screamed, his face on its side, his right cheek planted on the ground. Someone twisted his right hand to his back, and that someone certainly smelled like he bathed in cigarettes. Pain jolted in his arms when he felt Logan twist his arm more, making him shout again in immense pain. He felt a very rough hand grab his hair, pulling his head upwards, making more pain erupt.

He could hear Storm screaming for Logan to stop, but the way things are, he didn't know if she could make the almost animal do what she wants. Fortunately though, he felt Logan push his head back to the ground, his right cheek again meeting the grass below. Silence passed at whoever was there who watched the whole scene, and the only thing he could hear right now were his deep breaths.

John tried to move his arm an inch, only to get it pressed more to his back. In the process of calming down his uneven breathing, the only thing that registered in the fire mutant's head was silence, pain, and the feeling of the grass on his cheeks. Things were definitely going his way, he thought dryly.

_Well at least it was better than Marie's hand on your face_, the rational part of his brain responded, finding a bright side into things.

Sighing quietly at his thoughts, he felt his already erratic breaths stop for no longer than a minute when he heard his former bestfriend's voice.

"John?" he heard Bobby ask.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry for the late upload. But hey! For my readers out there, I'd love to hear some feedback.**

**And I forgot to put this in the Prologue so here it is:**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.**


	4. New Enemies and Camping Again

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 3**

**New Enemies & Camping Again**

After enjoying every last few drops of amusement, Jeremy restarted on cursing at himself at his own carelessness regarding John's matter. Luckily, he wasn't that clouded on his thoughts that he managed to bring himself to a halt just in time as Multiple Man stopped and turned to look at them.

Looking at the multiplying mutant with a little worry, especially there are only three of them in the place and Multiple Man could split into a hundred more people in just a second without so much effort, Jeremy's stare of worry turned to confusion when he saw another mutant come out behind the trees to Multiple Man's side.

"Who are you?" Jeremy asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Avalanche," was the arrogant toned, one-word response that came from the mutant. Great, another wannabe super villain, Jeremy thought.

Looking back at both of his colleagues, "Do you guys know him?" he asked.

"We don't," Pete responded, his Russian accent flowing smoothly. "Well…Storm might," he added as an afterthought. "I mean, there was a facility that got taken down days ago and several mutants escaped, maybe he's one of those."

"Right…" Jeremy trailed off, looking at the guy who claimed to be "Avalanche". Concentrating hard, he felt his mind enter the other man's.

_His consciousness slipped a little when he penetrated the other man's mind, while his thoughts kept pushing forward towards in Avalanche's head. That was, until he felt his thoughts come in contact with a huge wall inside Avalanche's mind. Silently wondering what the hell that was, he tried to go forward, but was again blocked by the wall-like thing in the mutant's mind. Frustrated, it took several seconds for Jeremy for understanding to dawn on him, and the little surprise got the telepath release a small gasp._

Returning his mind to his body, Jeremy stared at the mutant in shock, wondering how the hell the mutant had a mind blocker in his head. Avalanche just didn't seem to strike to him as the telepathic type; he was more of the strong, beefy men who had enhanced strength and such. Then again, he could only be stereotyping most of the mutants around him and that maybe this Avalanche guy was really a telepath, since the only people that could create those types of blocks were telepaths like him. Yet looking at him now, he was going to bet the money Warren Worthington currently has that Avalanche was definitely not a telepath.

But if he wasn't a telepath, then who placed those mind blocks in the mutant's head? It couldn't be Madrox, since as far as he knew; Multiple Man wasn't a telepath either. So if neither of the two could have placed those blocks…then could it possible that someone else had? Could it be possible that the two had another _friend_ that wasn't revealing himself or herself yet? Or worse, are the two probably working for a bigger organization that placed mind blocks in their heads? He could already see the point of a mind block being needed, especially if the mutant they sent on a mission gets arrested, and with the mind blocks in their head, the police would have a hard time spilling out information from the caught mutant. Thus, protecting the organization the mutant works for.

So that must be a possible reason onto why Avalanche had those mind blocks, Jeremy thought. And then feeling his eyes trail to James, he silently wondered if James also had the mind blocks like Avalanche. After all, they were working together…

Right?

_Oh well, there's only one way to find out_, Jeremy silently decided, his mind already travelling to the other mutant's.

_James Madrox's mind wasn't really as different as Avalanche's, only a few flashes of images showing up here and there. Jeremy hovered forward, looking everywhere, his guard up, and his head lazily looked around him, waiting for something that might— _

_Bingo! _

_And just as he expected, he felt his thoughts come in contact with a wall-like thing, just like the one in Avalanche's head. So it was possible, Jeremy concluded, that the two were working together, and were even possibly working for someone, since both weren't telepaths and someone must've placed those blocks in there to prevent any telepaths from ever entering their minds and gain information from them._

_Gathering a huge amount of energy, he released a huge wave that somehow made a small cracking sound in the wall. Good, he thought. Then after taking a deep breath, he did it again, and the wall shattered, as bright lights came out from the other side of the wall, blinding him for a moment._

_Managing to adjust to the bright light, Jeremy looked around him as colors, pictures, images, and small fragments of James's life flashed in front of him. Blurred images of people and things around them showed themselves, until they become more and more clear._

_Watching all the images as they flashed, Jeremy suddenly noticed a silhouette that was in the middle of the images. Putting up a defensive stance, Jeremy noticed that the person was slowly moving towards him._

"_Who are you?" Jeremy asked for the second time of the day._

_Instead of a real answer, the only response he got was a high-pitch chuckle, the silhouette forming a girl's figure. Taking short and careful steps forward, Jeremy didn't let his guard down as the girl opened her eyes, her terrifying blue staring back at his pale blue with a slight mock in her stare. And before Jeremy could even comprehend what was happening, the mysterious girl raised a clenched fist in Jeremy's direction, and then unclenched it, revealing her long stretched out fingers as Jeremy felt a sudden force hit his chest, a strong yet strange pressure that made all the air in Jeremy' lungs pushed out, his balance falling as his eyes made contact with her dark brown, and the feeling of fear radiating through her eyes that seemed to eat him up. Jeremy felt his eyes close, just before she flashed her pearly white teeth in a dark smirk, as he felt his own consciousness slip into the darkness…_

His eyes widening, Jeremy released a huge gasp at what he had seen.

_What the hell was that?! Who was that girl? Was it an illusion?_ He heard his own head ask, hoping that it really was. _But it all felt real_, something in his head countered. That was true; he could still feel the girl's eyes in his head. Her terrifying death stare that was as if meant to tell everyone who was going to look at it that they're going to die.

"Jeremy?" Kitty asked, looking at Jeremy cautiously.

Kitty's voice made Jeremy's head snapped up, the telepath only noticing that James was on his knees, both of his hands clutching his head tight, and the green container the mutant once held was on the ground, forgotten.

So it affected him too, Jeremy noted, looking at James when the multiplying mutant started getting back on his feet. And then James looked up, his eyes meeting Jeremy's, but instead of dark blue eyes Multiple Man had, Jeremy saw the pair of terrifying dark blue eyes that seemed to instill the familiar feeling of fear that got him over the edge.

"Jeremy?" Kitty asked again, her tone getting more worried as she noticed a small flash of fear enter the mutant's eyes. She was already waiting for a fight to break out, her hands already feeling itchy as she tried to get a hold of herself from strangling James Madrox and his new companion with her bare hands. She knows next to nothing when it comes to the other mutant's abilities, and after all, she didn't want any surprises when it comes to Avalanche's mutant ability. So when Jeremy was reading their minds, there was an intense silence between all of them in the field, both sides waiting for the opposing side to make a move. It didn't last long though, because their little staring match suddenly broke when suddenly Multiple Man fell on his knees. Of course she and Pete thought that Jeremy had succeeded in making the mutant weak for the time being. But now that she looked back at Jeremy's eyes, she wasn't so sure.

Pulling herself out of her own thoughts, she noticed that she still hadn't got the mutant's attention. "Jeremy! Jeremy! Jeremy!" she called, snapping her fingers in front of the telepath's face.

Putting himself back on attention, Jeremy slightly shook his head as he tried to shake away the small feeling fear that seemed to have gotten passed from the mysterious girl's terrifying brown eyes to his head. Sighing quietly, he looked in front of him as he noticed that Multiple Man was already back on his feet. Silently cursing at himself for getting too distracted, Jeremy moved forward in front of his two colleagues, who both put themselves in front of his vulnerable body earlier when his mind were somewhere else, and stood on offence.

The two other mutants didn't miss the silent message Jeremy's action tried to convey, and soon got themselves ready for a huge and exhausting battle.

_Let's go!_ Jeremy commanded, as the three of them took off running to their enemies.

They weren't even halfway yet to their enemies when they heard Avalanche scoff loud enough, bringing up his right foot and stomped it hard on the ground.

A shattering earthquake suddenly broke out, sending the three running mutants to a grinding halt, their balance losing as they landed hard on the ground, just seconds after a huge chunk of land came up from the ground in front of them, blocking out the whole path and view of the three mutants to their enemies. The earthquake didn't continue for a second longer once the block had been as high as the trees, the huge chunk of ground acting like a wall between Jeremy and his team from Avalanche and Multiple Man.

"Fuck," Jeremy cursed, glaring at the huge wall that stood in front of them.

"Hold on tight," Kitty said. And before both men even knew what was happening, they were already phasing to the other side of the wall, looking at the empty open field.

"They're gone," Pete muttered, his head looking around him for possible clues onto where they went.

"Impossible," Jeremy whispered. "I can't even feel their presence," he suddenly declared.

The two other mutants gapped at the sudden declaration of their teammate, looking at him with utter disbelief in their faces.

"Seriously?!" Kitty whined, not liking the news that she won't be able to strangle their team's favorite mutant.

Okay, that was _so_ out-of-character of her.

Pete just sighed. "Let's just get back with the others," he said. "And then we can go ask Storm to check and see who that Avalanche guy really is."

"True," Kitty agreed with a slight nod. "Besides, we still need to know if Logan and the others found that other mutant Bobby claimed he saw," she added.

Remembering John's dilemma, Jeremy felt a small smirk slip into his features, ignoring for a second that it was due to his carelessness that John was seriously in for it when he sees Bobby again. Oh the things he would do just to see it…

Noticing the look on Jeremy's face, Kitty slightly narrowed her eyes. "Jeremy…" she started. "Bobby said that you saw it too…the person hidden in the woods, I mean. I-Is that true?" she cautiously asked.

His amusement still in tow, Jeremy looked back at Kitty with a look that he hoped was neutral enough. "Yeah, I saw it, too," Jeremy confirmed. "But it looks like they're going to chase the wrong person, since the real Multiple Man just escaped with the Avalanche guy."

"But…do you know who that person Logan and the others are chasing?"

Amused by Kitty's interest, Jeremy tried hard and failed to keep a small smirk from showing up in his face. "It was no one," he answered.

Completely not amused that the telepath was keeping some things from the whole team, Kitty made sure that her annoyance was completely shown. "Come on, Jer, we're a team. You can tell us anything!"

Jeremy's small smirk widened. "You'll know soon enough," he said, winking at her as an added effect. "C'mon, Pete! Let's head back. There's no use for us loitering around here."

Kitty huffed loudly when Pete nodded at Jeremy, watching as both men turn around and then suddenly stop. Realizing what made both men halt in their tracks, Kitty plastered her most innocent look at Jeremy when he turned to look at her with a slight pleading look.

"C'mon, Kitty," Jeremy said, gesturing at the huge wall that stood on their way.

Kitty just continued with the innocent look, tilting her head to the slightly to the side.

Jeremy clearly got what the girl was trying to ask, and he knows that if she doesn't get her answer they'd be staying there until the sun goes down and the X-Men goes looking for them. Deciding to wait and see if Kitty could resist both of them, Jeremy shrugged his shoulders in response to Kitty's look, knowing the girl well enough that she was going to be pissed at his nonchalance.

After a few more silent moments, Jeremy decided that Kitty wasn't going to crack her shell anytime soon. And as much as he wanted to play with the girl, he had a feeling that John was in trouble, especially if left alone with Bobby, and a half-animal. So right now his new mission is how to get out of there as soon as possible before Logan gets his sharp claws on John's throat. His shoulders hunching pitifully for John, Jeremy started planning his quickest escape as he looked over the huge wall.

Suddenly considering the thought of just flying over the enormous thing, Jeremy looked back at the smirking Kitty and the tin man, who seemed pretty amused at their whole situation. Great, and now that he thought about it, as much as he wanted to escape quickly, he just couldn't let Pete left behind, especially not alone with a very innocent, yet evil plot-bearing Kitty Pryde. But then again, Pete doesn't know who that guy in the woods was either, so maybe Kitty would have the heart to let the metal man off the hook.

And if she doesn't…well Pete can pull off the best "kicked puppy" look he had ever seen since he was born. Tin man was like the most adorable thing ever when he was wearing that look, and Jeremy knows Kitty can't resist adorable things.

An evil plan hatching in his mind, Jeremy now knows how to get him and Pete out of there. Smirking in his head, Jeremy telepathically contacted Pete, the metal man doing well in not acknowledging him while he summarized his plan.

They were planning something, Kitty thought, looking at the men in front her. The wicked gleam in Jeremy's eyes and Pete's sudden ignorance of the telepath's presence gave it all away. Narrowing her eyes, Kitty made sure to glue her feet to the ground and made it clear in her face that she wasn't going to leave the damn place unless she got answers from her questions.

Noticing that the girl was getting more and more suspicious, Jeremy made sure that Pete knew what he was going to do before he bid the metal man a silent adieu and turned to the only girl on the group, giving her a smirk as he fled the scene, flying across the enormous wall to the open field where he saw the X-jet landing earlier, leaving behind a pissed Kitty and a metal man on a mission.

**o-o-o-o-o**

"John?" he heard Bobby ask.

His breath stopping, it took John several heartbeats to realize that he seriously needed air to live. Trying to take very deep breaths despite his very uncomfortable position, John added a little tone of arrogance when he responded back to his former bestfriend.

"Miss me, Drake?" Okay…so maybe he added more than just a spoonful of arrogance in there.

Bobby stammered as he looked at the fire mutant with disbelief. "But…how…" Shaking his head, "How did you…I left you there. You were unconscious. It couldn't be," Bobby muttered, reminiscing in his head the events at Alcatraz. "You can't be alive."

"Oh you'd certainly want that, don't you?" John responded bitterly, hiding the hurt he felt at the other mutant's statement. To John it sounded as if the ice mutant had really intended for him to die back there, and just the thought of Bobby wanting him dead hurt more than it should.

Bobby and the others just shook their heads in complete disbelief in what they were currently seeing, even Logan was a little peeved by what was currently happening. He just didn't expect this and all. Talk about big surprises…

"But exactly how did you manage to get away from the wrath of Ms. Grey then, Mr. Allerdyce?" Hank asked diplomatically, as if he was talking to the next possible present of the United States.

John, still facing the grounds, rolled his eyes at the furball's formality on addressing him. "Y'know, for an ambassador, one would like to think that you would be looking and talking to me like a juvenile delinquent that I am, _Dr. McCoy_," John said, using a mocking tone when he addressed the blue furred mutant. "Or is that really your way of talking to rogue mutants?" he suddenly added in fake nonchalance.

John's face maybe facing away from him, but Hank could already feel the smirk on John's face from where he's standing on. Looking at the woman beside him, Hank silently pleaded for Storm to take the matters in her own hands, since the woman once had the troublemaker as one of her students before.

Knowing that look from Hank, Ororo sighed quietly as she looked over to where John was currently laying. "Well, John. What we're only trying to say is that the possibility of your death during the Alcatraz incident was just too high, and for being gone for almost a year, well…everyone believed you were dead, John," Storm started to explain. "And you suddenly showing up in the middle of September almost a year after Alcatraz had happened…it just seemed too…unlikely. We're just trying to ask you how you managed to escape when Jean's alter-ego was released, and how you managed to survive for this long," she finished.

"I told you two," John said, rolling his eyes. "It's sort of a long story."

"Well…you can tell us…"

Thinking that the ambassador was probably crazy for even suggesting the idea, John decided to give them more dismissive answers, "I doubt you guys would have the whole day."

"John, we're willing to listen to what you have to say," Storm said. "It's better that we know the whole truth than we make the wrong conclusions and accusations."

"Accusations? You're saying as if me being reawakened from the dead was some crime people shouldn't commit."

Flinching slightly at the fire mutant's tone at her wrong choice of words, Storm knew better than to change it, giving notice to the seemingly impossible fact that John was somehow reawakened. "So…you're saying that you're reawakened from the dead?"

"Of course not," John responded, rolling his eyes. He was doing much of that today, he thought. "That is very impossible."

"Then…how come you're still alive then?" Storm asked with a hint of caution in her voice.

Pissed because they were that desperate for answers and also pissed because he can't see what Bobby's reactions are, John felt a light bulb turn on in his head as an idea occurred to him.

Faking a sigh, "You know I really love to tell you guys what really happened to me," John started, his voice making it clear that he was slightly pissed. "But I don't think I'm going to be in the mood for some story telling if my face is high-fiving the ground," he continued, trying to give the man pinning him down a dark glare.

Storm looked at Logan with a pleading look, one that clearly stated that they needed to know what really happened to John.

"WHAT?!" Logan shouted. "You're actually considering it?!"

"Logan, we really need to know," Storm said with a sigh. "Please."

"You really need to listen to Ms. Munroe over there, Wolvy," John mocked, knowing how well he was pissing Logan off.

Logan just glared darkly at John, before giving Storm a look that said she was utterly crazy for making him do this.

"Fine," Logan finally conceded, giving John another dark look before pulling him up to his feet, though he still held the fire mutants hands behind him, which surprisingly, wasn't holding any kind of lighter.

Everyone stared at John as they waited for him to talk, even Bobby, who was completely curious on to how John really escaped.

Sighing again, Storm listened as John whistled an innocent tune, and then slightly turned his head sideward, gesturing to the mutant who was behind him.

"I'd rather be handcuffed by the police than get scratched by this wannabe cat," John simply stated.

"I'm an almost _wolf_, kid," Logan said. "Or do you want some proof that I can bury these damn claws in your throat?"

John's smirk didn't waver at Logan's threat. "As much as it pleases my ears that you're finally admitting that you're an animal, there's no need, Wolvy. I know where those claws had been before, and Mystique won't stop bragging that her apology kiss being more than intense than she expected."

Logan growled at the small reference his captive had just made. "You better shut your mouth—"

"What?" John exclaimed. "I thought you guys wanted me to talk?" he asked, faking his bewilderment.

"Logan just let go of him," Storm said exasperatedly.

"WHAT?! Do you guys want to be burned to death?!" Logan said, looking at Storm with wide eyes.

About to tell them that he doesn't carry any lighter with him today, John decided to just keep his mouth shut, what they don't know won't kill them. "Oh don't worry. I'm pretty sure Bobby's willing to butt-head me again just in case I get naughty," John mocked, smirking when he noticed his former best friend flinch a little.

Storm ignored John's latest comment and gave Logan a pleading look, to which he sighed.

"But what if he tries to run away?"

"Your nose can smell him, he won't be able to get away," Hank assured Logan.

Looking from Ororo, to Hank, and then to John, "Fine," was what Logan has to say, reluctantly letting go of the fire mutant's hand, and giving the mutant a small space.

Silence filled the area as Storm and Hank waited for John to speak, while Logan and the other two waited for him to make a move to escape.

Of course John thought that Logan won't let go of him no matter what happens, but apparently the wannabe cat was seriously tamed by Storm, something that shocked him, so right now, he had no idea what to say. Curiously looking around, John hoped that Jeremy would arrive soon, that way; John could know if the other mutant wanted him to tell the X-Men about how he survived.

"Well?" Logan pressed.

"I can't," John silently admitted. "I can't tell you."

Hank and Storm looked at each other in unison. "Why not?" the ambassador asked.

"Because…" John trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"Hey, guys! What's up?" John released a huge sigh of relief when he heard Jeremy's voice. Hopefully the telepath would be able to help him, that is, if Jeremy would even acknowledge him there.

"What's up?" Logan repeated. "_This_ is what's up!" he said, grabbing John by the arm and turning him around to face Jeremy.

"Hey, John," Jeremy said, nodding at him.

Nodding back at Jeremy, John turned to face a shocked Logan and ripped away his arm from him. "Hey, Jer."

"You two…know each other?" Hank said, looking at Jeremy and John.

"Of cour—"

"HOW DARE YOU, JEREMY—_Oh my God_!"

Looking at the two new arrivals, John's face of annoyance left his face and was replaced by a smirk. "Hello, Pryde, Rusty-tin."

Doing his best to hide his shock, Pete rolled his eyes at the ugly nickname John had made for him. "Hello, John," he said, hoping his voice didn't seem as shocked like his thoughts were.

"You're alive?!" Kitty gasped out, and then looked at Jeremy, "Is this the _onlooker_ you were talking about?!"

Everyone except John, Storm, and Hank understood what Kitty meant to say, looking at Jeremy with curiosity on their eyes.

Jeremy just shrugged his shoulder. "Pretty much, yes, John _is_ the onlooker I was talking about earlier."

"Onlooker?" John couldn't help but ask, wondering why he was being referred to it.

"Well…you weren't so subtle when you were planning on going near the jet earlier so Bobby noticed you," Jeremy said.

"You allowed him to go near the jet?!"

Looking at Bobby, Jeremy did his best not to glare at the other mutant. "Yes, I was. He was planning on putting out the fire earlier, you see?"

"What?" that was all Bobby could say in disbelief.

A huge silence had passed as most of them tried to wrap their heads around the idea of John Allerdyce being alive and helping them, _the X-Men_. Not knowing whether it was a good thing or a bad thing didn't help either. Just what exactly was going on in the world right now?

Taking the silence as an advantage, Hank asked John the question he was dying to know the answers on, clearing his throat; he began, "So…John, you still haven't answered our question, how exactly did manage to escape from Alcatraz during the Phoenix's wrath?"

Rolling his eyes at their persistence, John said looked at the ambassador with a glare. "Look, I told you—"

"He hadn't."

Everyone except one looked at Jeremy in surprise when he interrupted John, only Logan breathing a sigh of relief. "Oh good, just read that kid's head on the way home. Oh and please, if you could, put him on sleep while you're doing it, hopefully that'll shut him up."

"I didn't read his mind," Jeremy said, now surprising Logan. He then looked at Storm. "Storm, the sun's going down, you think we can bring John with us? I promise to keep him in line."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Bobby said, looking at Jeremy with surprise. "You want _him_ to go with us?"

Jeremy nodded.

"To the mansion?" Bobby continued.

Jeremy nodded again.

"Seriously?!" the ice mutant asked. "S-Storm, you can't allow this!"

John blinked in surprise at Jeremy's request. Oh dear, he _so_ hoped that Storm would say no, because as much as he wanted a place to stay, he just couldn't bear the thought of staying in the same mansion _with_ Bobby for a (probably long) period time. Not to mention Logan would be there too, who surely would be watching him like a hawk, planning his very, _very_, painful death.

He won't be able to cope with it.

"I'm sorry," Storm said, making John's eyes widen, feeling of happiness swelling in him. "But I think John should be with us for now."

_WHAT?!_

"WHAT?!" Logan said, as if reading John's thoughts. "Storm, seriously?!"

"Logan, please," Storm said tiredly. "Plus, no one's going home tonight," she announced. "The engine's blown up. Hank will fix it tomorrow during daylight."

"So…does that mean we're going to stay here?" Kitty asked.

"Yes, Kitty, we're going to stay here," Ororo confirmed. "That way we have all night to listen to John as he discusses his story."

"But where exactly are we going to sleep?" Warren spoke for the first time, looking around him to find a shelter just near the jet.

"We could set up a camp here, just like the last time we got stranded. There are tents inside the jet that could help us," Storm responded.

Smirking slightly at the word "tent", John looked at Logan, who was already looking at him with a deadly gleam in his eyes.

"Just how much exactly did Mystique tell you?" Logan growled, knowing that the fire mutant was about to tease him.

"Everything, Wolvy, and let me tell you, she was _very_ detailed while describing it."

* * *

**A/N: And that was the chapter, ladies and gentlemen!**

**Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter! The compliments were truly appreciated! :D**

**Now, I'm sorry for the long (and probably boring) Jeremy, Kitty, and Pete moment at the beginning. But I had to raise the plot by an inch over there.**


	5. Imprisonment

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 4**

**Camp Stories, Part 1: Imprisonment**

John hadn't been there yet for almost an hour and he could already feel the glare Logan seemed to permanently direct to him. Shuffling awkwardly on his seat, John looked Jeremy pleadingly, who left him twenty minutes ago and was currently with Storm and Hank, the three engaged in what seemed like a very deep conversation.

Of course, Logan was there too, who insisted on staying inside the jet contrary to preparing the other tents with the X-men outside, saying that someone needs to lookout for that_ homicidal fire mutant_. John thought that he was just trying to find some action from him that could give Logan an excuse to kill him once and for all.

But being the homicidal fire mutant that he was, John made sure to keep an innocent expression on his face and just sat still, knowing that the animal was becoming more and more frustrated as time passed.

At first he was having fun getting Logan riled up, looking at the domesticated cat breaking free of its leash was just plain hilarious. But now that he looked at his situation carefully, Logan was just across his seat, which was just two seats away from the ramp, while Jeremy and the others were on the pilot seats in front and…well, now that he looked at it, Logan would be able to get to him faster than the others could, and perhaps even kill him even before the others could get to his aid. He couldn't use the ramp either, since Bobby was there on the field and could butt-head him again without much effort, and then leave him to Logan so he could finally be slaughtered for good.

So he was going to die nonetheless after all, which sucks, because he thought he was at least gonna be able to defend himself before he dies. But right now he was helpless; he was going against a team who wanted him dead, and not to mention he wasn't carrying any lighter with him today.

For reasons he couldn't comprehend, the fates have intense hatred for him.

Sighing quietly at his thoughts, John turned away his pleading eyes from the innocent Jeremy and looked around him, his eyes stopping at the ramp, remembering the last time his jealousy controlled him and made him leave the jet. He just couldn't stand being in the same place with Bobby and Marie anymore, and when opportunity arose, just like the time Mystique and Magneto asked him if he wanted to join their _cause_, John just jumped to it.

And then months passed, he found Bobby again, in the buildings that held the cure for mutants, looking for someone, of course he thought that hopefully it was him, and then the ice mutant had that look, the look that he only gave his girlfriend, that loving and caring expression he only reserved for someone he loved. It was the look Bobby always gave Marie. Of course John would never be able to get that look from his former best friend. And the thought fueled his hatred.

He set the building on fire, hoping that the bitch would also get burned with it. But she didn't, she was alive, she got the cure, and probably she and Bobby were already at it like rabbits back at the mansion.

Gross, was the only word that John could come up with when he thought about it.

Shaking his head at the mental images, John looked back at his lap, his ears picking up the sound of footsteps that were coming up the ramp. The footsteps continued until he heard one of the cabinets open, and then close after a few seconds. John heard the footsteps approaching him, but he just continued looking at his lap, this time feeling more than just a pair of eyes staring at him. And it wasn't until he felt another presence just beside him did he looked up, his breath getting caught up in his throat when he realized who that is.

Just beside him was Bobby Drake, looking at him with an expression that clearly said he was pissed off at himself for what he was currently doing.

That, and his eyes also said he hated John to the bone.

His shock subsiding a little, John stood up, well aware of the other pair of eyes that were watching their every move.

"What do you want, Drake?" John asked, looking and sounding like he also hated the ice mutant just as much as the other hated him. And even though his tone of voice said he hated Bobby, his insides felt otherwise, electricity ran through his veins the more he stared at those blue orbs, his heart beating faster than normal, and he felt chills running down his spine.

His lower regions felt different too; oddly he felt that an angry and pissed Bobby was a huge turn-on for him.

Right, and that was certainly something he shouldn't be feeling right now.

Bobby's eyes remained cool and collected when he responded silently, only intending it for the fire mutant's ears. "If you're planning on sleeping here tonight, you might as well fix your own tent. Surely Jeremy would be able to help you fixing it," Bobby said, forcefully shoving the bag to the fire mutant's chest.

"And they told _you_ to give me this because…" John trailed off, raising a curious eyebrow on Bobby's direction.

Rolling his eyes, Bobby dismissively answered, "Everyone was busy."

"And you weren't?"

"I am, too. Now if you really won't mind, keep your tent away from the campfire or—"

"Or what?" John challenged. "You're going to butt-head me again?"

"I will," Bobby said, nodding his head slightly. "And this time I'm going to make sure you aren't going to wake up."

John's hurt and shock was clearly written in the fire mutant's face when Jeremy entered the conversation, having heard their whole _talk_ when he entered the fire mutant's head on Storm's orders. Grabbing the bag John was forced to hold, Jeremy made sure to clear his throat loudly when he pulled John's arm with him when he steered the fire mutant to the ramp.

"I think John and I are going down to set up our tents now," Jeremy said, slightly nodding back at Hank and Ororo while completely ignoring Bobby and Logan.

**o-o-o-o-o**

"Are we sure we can trust them?" Bobby bluntly asked when Jeremy and John were already out of sight.

Ororo and Hank looked at each other in unison before sighing. "I'm not sure," Ororo admitted. "But I guess it's best if we keep him in our watch for now."

Not convinced about Storm's reason of keeping John, especially if he was going to get teased by the annoying pyromaniac when he stayed with them, Logan scowled when he remembered that Storm only answered for John. "And that telepath?" he asked.

"We're still not sure about his connection to John," Hank pointed out. "But whatever it might be I still trust Jeremy, that's something I'm sure of."

Knowing that Logan was going to speak up, Storm managed to cut him off before he could even say something. "He'd seen us in our weakest points," Storm said. "If he wanted to bring us down he would've done that a long time ago."

Shaking his head slightly at disbelief, Bobby countered, "Maybe because he was just alone by that time? And now that John's already with him he could totally bring us down now."

Sighing again at Bobby and Logan's persistence, and also at Bobby's point, Storm looked at both of them with sternness. "I trust Jeremy," Storm said, and feeling the sudden need to clarify her decision, she quickly added, "His records said that he had a brother, a soldier, who fought in Alcatraz but was never found again. If he's currently angry and planning revenge at this minute, his plot should totally be directed at the Brotherhood, not to us."

"But why did you think he was cool with that pyromaniac then?" Logan asked, peeved at the information he just heard.

"I don't know, and that's exactly the reason why I'm confused too," Storm confessed, her eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Well it looks like we're just gonna have to wait until John tells his story, maybe there's something there that could help us out," Hank reasonably said, looking at the other three people in the room.

Logan huffed loudly. "I don't know about you guys, but I think something fishy is going on here," he stated, more confused than ever.

Bobby, Ororo, and Hank couldn't help but agree with that.

**o-o-o-o-o**

It was already dark when John and Jeremy went down the ramp, both suddenly stopping when Kitty and Pete, the only X-Men on the field, openly stared at both of them as if they were both walking with a newly reanimated Professor Xavier.

John, who was left hurt and bitter at his former bestfriend's last statement, turned to glare at the two mutants who were looking at him weirdly. It certainly didn't take much time for the other two to quickly flinch in his glare, an action which made John's previously punched ego heal a little, knowing that the two were somehow afraid of him.

But the anger John was currently feeling inside of him quickly turned to a feeling of amusement in a heartbeat, a smirk suddenly slipping John's features, crossing his arms and completely turning to Kitty and Pete, who he noticed turned to look at the bonfire that was surrounded by the tents, the fire giving light to their whole surroundings.

John watched as both Kitty and Pete's eyes bounced from the fire, then back to him, and then back at the fire, and then back to him. Amused, John was very sure that he heard Kitty's gulp, thinking if he could do small trick in the fire by making it grow bigger.

But of course he couldn't do that, especially with his friend just beside him, who he felt was already inside his mind, and was giving him a scolding look from behind.

Turning around, John looked at Jeremy, who was giving him an unimpressed look. "Dude, you really need to stop reading my mind like that."

"If I wasn't reading your mind like that, you might've already burned this whole area with a flick of a hand," Jeremy responded in a flat tone.

"I find it flattering that you think that I'm really that strong," John cockily replied, smirking at Jeremy.

Thank the heavens that he had a long patience for annoying pyromaniacs, Jeremy thought. "You wouldn't have earned the title of _Magneto's right hand man_ if you weren't."

"I never knew I had that title," John admitted, his voice dripping with fake innocence.

"Oh just fuck off."

Chuckling slightly, John watched as Jeremy went to talk to Kitty and Pete, both of the mutants looking at him and then quickly turned back to Jeremy, nodding their heads slightly at what Jeremy was saying. Not wanting to miss their conversation, John quickly went to Jeremy, noticing Kitty freeze when she noticed him approaching.

"Hey, Jer," John said. And then looking at Kitty, "Hello, Pryde. Cat got your tongue?"

Kitty scowled, looking at Pete with distaste. "Too much for your_ "he's still the same" _talk, Pete."

Pete just shrugged. "Well…he's still an ass. So I guess that means I'm right…"

"Yeah I guess that's something that wouldn't change from our sweet Pyro," Jeremy muttered, glaring at John before speaking again. "Now, c'mon, you bastard, the tent isn't going to build itself."

"From _"homicidal fire mutant"_, to "_Magneto's right hand man_", to an _"ass"_, to _"sweet Pyro"_, and then _"bastard"_? Damn, you guys have the greatest nicknames for me," John said with a smirk.

Sighing quietly, Jeremy just muttered a "whatever" and sent Pete and Kitty away, quickly getting to work on the tent, ignoring John in the process.

John just sat near the fire, which was just in front of their tents, and watched as Jeremy used telekinesis in building the place they were going to sleep at for the rest of the night. Not that he was getting any sleep tonight, John thought, especially when most of the team still thinks that he's still one of Magneto's pawns, and might watch him throughout the whole night like a prisoner.

But speaking of prisoners…"Jeremy," John began, looking around him to see if Kitty and Pete were out-of-hearing bounds. And when he figured that they were, he continued, "Am I going to be imprisoned?"

Jeremy looked back at John with slight interest at first, especially at the serious tone of the fire mutant. But after hearing the question that came out of the mutant's mouth, the telepath just shrugged. "No," he simply said, looking back at the manual of the tent.

And while Jeremy thought it was worth shrugging at, John thought otherwise. "WHAT?!" he shouted in surprise, gathering Kitty and Pete's attention for a while.

Jeremy just raised an eyebrow at John. "You didn't know?"

"No…"

Dropping the telekinetically lifted items for a while, Jeremy turned his complete attention to John, who was silently muttering, "_I'm not getting imprisoned,"_ to himself again and again.

"Don't tell me you're so surprised," Jeremy said, cutting off John's chants.

"How can I not be?" John argued. "I'm pretty sure I've hurt several people before. And as far as I figured, American laws state that hurting and _burning_ people are a crime!"

"Since when did _you_ care about American Laws, John?" Jeremy teased, smirking at John.

"Okay, contrary to popular belief, I sometimes pay attention in class too, you know!" John protested, looking back at Jeremy with a slight offended look.

Sighing, "Actually, you're really supposed to be in prison right now," Jeremy said, knowing that must be what the fire mutant was expecting to hear.

Indeed it was, since John looked at Jeremy, his face filled with bewilderment. "So…why am I not in prison, then?"

"You're gonna have to thank Mystique for that," Jeremy answered.

"Mystique?"

"Yes, John. Mystique, as in Raven Darkholme," Jeremy confirmed.

"I know who she is!"

"Then why ask?"

"Because I'm confused!"

"I thought you were over that phase when you confirmed you were gay?" Jeremy smirked, looking at the riled up fire mutant.

"Jeremy! I'm confused on why would I want to thank her!"

"Oh…Is that what you meant?"

John glared at the smirking telepath. "Jeremy, just answer my question!"

Sighing that their one-sided playful banter was over, and that it had to stop when John was already near whining, Jeremy silently promised himself that he'd do better next time before speaking. "Well it's sort of hard to explain," the telepath said, but after a pause he inquired, "Wait, haven't I told you this before?"

"No, you haven't!" John responded. "I wouldn't be asking you if you did. Besides, this happened months after Alcatraz, right? So that means I'm already wandering the streets by that time. And we hadn't seen each other until now so there's no possible way of you being able to tell me."

Jeremy nodded slightly at John's point. And then quickly sucking in a breath, Jeremy folded back the manual of the tent and sat in front of John before starting. "Well…before we start this whole story, do you know what Mystique's current job is?"

"No, I don't," John admitted.

"But do you know what Mystique did before the attack at Alcatraz?"

"The last time I heard—which was almost a year ago—Mystique gave the government information on where the Brotherhood hideout was. Only Magneto expected her move, and was already one step ahead, so he left James and his dupes in the old hideout so we can go to Alcatraz undetected," John recalled, looking at Jeremy, who slightly curved his lips upwards.

"Exactly, John," Jeremy confirmed. "And that, still, is her job until now," he continued, and when he noticed John's eyebrows dipped in confusion he began to elaborate, "Mystique was fuming when Magneto abandoned her in that moving prison, and attempted revenge by revealing the Brotherhood's secret hideout, only her attempt failed when the soldiers discovered it was a decoy. Still though, it didn't stop the government from capturing Multiple Man, and grabbing evidences against the mutants who worked with Magneto, especially when some of their belongings were still left there in the abandoned hideout. Of course, no one knew who the mutants were and what their abilities are after the failure of the Mutant Registration Act, so the government was left in the dark.

"But Mystique though, who found this again as another attempt of revenge, helped the government identify the mutants who worked with Magneto. Soon enough, in a matter of months, the soldiers found and caught the mutants who worked for that magnet-freak. Only Magneto escaped, and then a few months after that Multiple Man escaped. Everyone tried to make a connection between the cases, but it was definitely a hard case, especially since James always looked like he worked alone with his dupes, until they didn't notice, but Magneto fell out of radar."

Jeremy paused, watching as John wrapped his head with the brand new information. It was one huge silence that passed between both of the mutants before John chose to break it.

"But…where do I fit in that story?" the fire mutant asked, his eyebrows still dipped in confusion.

Jeremy first licked his lips before continuing his story. "The government thanked Mystique deeply for what she did, and was given a chance to work with the government."

"Wait a sec.," John blinked, surprised at the turn of events. "Mystique, Magneto's right hand _woman_, was given the chance to work for the government?"

"Yes, John, however unbelievable it might be, Mystique was indeed given a chance to work with the government," Jeremy confirmed, smirking a little.

His interest showing up, John looked at Jeremy with full on curiosity in his face. "Did she accept it?" he asked.

"No," Jeremy said. "Well…at first she didn't," he elaborated. "She just ignored the government's attempt at recruiting her. She was given a chance to work with the—"

"Okay, hold your horses!" John interrupted, waving his hands in front of Jeremy. "Why would the government _want_ to recruit Mystique again?"

"In their defense I guess it was rather the point of _need_ than _want_," Jeremy explained. "The government needed someone like Mystique, someone who knows a lot about their enemies, someone who has a lot of information on mutants like Magneto. I guess the government just didn't want to waste someone like her, even if they weren't so sure on where her loyalties really lay."

Another moment of silence passed between the two mutants before John spoke again, "I still don't understand," he sighed. "What do these things have to do with _me_?"

"Easy there, Pyro," Jeremy said, winking at John when the mutant grimaced at what he was called. "Mystique never wanted to become a member of the government, John. But when she realized that they weren't planning on letting her get away with it, she somehow used it to her advantage," he continued explaining.

"Advantage?" John questioned chuckling slightly, his mind thinking that the phrase: _"to her _selfish_ needs,_" would probably make it more believable.

"I know what you're thinking, John," Jeremy said, smirking. But yeah, that phrase could probably make much more sense, he thought in agreement. "But this is the part of the story where you enter," he said.

And when he was sure that John's full attention was now directed to him he continued his story, "After weeks of persuasions, Mystique quickly confronted the government officials about their very weird proposal and accepted it," Jeremy paused, looking over at the John's surprised face before continuing, "But only, on one condition," he continued.

"And what was that condition?" John pressed.

"Easy, she'll willingly join the government and will do what they want her to if the government would give _certain_ people, specifically certain _mutants_, a pardon," Jeremy answered.

"And who were those mutants?"

The slight cautiousness in the fire mutant's voice didn't get past Jeremy's attentive ears. He knew that John already knew who the mutants, or at least one of the mutants, that were given a pardon. It only appears that John just wanted to hear it directly from him who the mutants really were.

"Well…those mutants weren't that many really," Jeremy started. "Only two, to be exact, one of them, was Remy LeBeau, do you know who he is?"

John nodded slightly at the mention of Remy. He was one close friend of his while he was in the brotherhood, John recalled. "Yeah," he muttered under his breath.

"And the other mutant," Jeremy continued, "was _you_."

John had expected it, really, only he hadn't taken it well when it already came out of the telepath's mouth. Sucking in a very deep breath, he asked, "So…I'm not getting imprisoned then?"

Shaking his head, Jeremy said, "No, John, you aren't getting imprisoned."

"And the government just allowed that to happen?" John suddenly asked, the thought just occurring to him.

"Well…at first they weren't, but they were desperate to get Mystique, and since everyone thought you were dead, and Remy wasn't really that involved in Alcatraz, surrendering when guns were already pointed in his head; they just allowed it. Telling the public though, was some hard shit, but who cares right? As long as you're free I guess," Jeremy said, shrugging his shoulders a little.

It was another tensed silence after his statement. His eyes watching John as the fire mutant clenched and then loosened his fists. His brown eyes distant and jaws locked. Jeremy already knew that from the eyes alone that John was having a hard time accepting this brand new information. But knowing John, the telepath knew that the fire mutant would be able to get over it even before dinner.

The silence seemed like hours to Jeremy, only to have it broken by John, who was again chanting: _"I'm not getting imprisoned,"_ over and over again. Sighing quietly, Jeremy stood up, planning on finishing the tent quickly before dinner. And hopefully, by that time, John would finally wrap his head on the brand new information and get it over with.

* * *

**A/N: My writing here seemed a bit..._off_. I don't know...I hope you guys still enjoyed the chapter.**

**Anyways, thank you so much for the reviews for the last chapter! You guys are all amazing! Forgive me for my slow updates too...hope the chapters are worth the wait. :D**


	6. The Real Deal Behind

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 5**

**Camp Stories, Part 2: The Real Deal Behind**

"You're seriously still not over it?!" Jeremy exclaimed, looking over at John, who was—still—chanting _"I'm not getting imprisoned_,_"_ repeatedly ever since he left him in his thoughts when he fixed their tent. It was already night time, and while the telepath continued setting up their tent, it looked like John had spent his whole time alone muttering to himself, which currently isn't going to be a good thing if he was going to be questioned for the whole night.

"Of course I'm not!" John exclaimed, his ten-minute long chants breaking as he walked with Jeremy to the bonfire. Storm had already called all of them for dinner, which only comprised of marshmallows on packs, and some canned juice stored for some emergencies like what just happened to the jet earlier. "I'm never going to get over it!"

"Well you should," Jeremy advised. "Especially since Ororo and Hank are gonna corner you with questions tonight."

John's eyes suddenly widened when he remembered that Hank and Storm are going to interrogate him. His mind was just filled with the same sentence that the other things in his head had slipped away. He hadn't even planned what he was going to say tonight.

He was so screwed. Like, totally screwed.

Not missing the look on the fire mutant's face, Jeremy just stared at John in shock. "Seriously?!" he inquired, stopping both of them in their tracks.

A guilty look was the only thing John could muster up. Rubbing the back of his neck nervously, John made a sound that barely resembled a chuckle, "Yeah…"

"John, they're gonna eat you alive in there!" Jeremy warned, knowing well how Hank interrogates someone. The furball could be annoying and persuasive at the same time when it comes to his questions.

"I know, I know," John assured. "It's just that I need to wrap my head around this whole thing, okay? Too much happened today: First, I saw the X-Men; Second, I see you again; Third: I see and hear Bobby again; Fourth; I get to spend a whole night with the people who Magneto condemned as the _lost ones_. And then the next thing I know, I'm not getting imprisoned! I just…I need time for all of this to finally register in my head. It all seems like a dream!"

"I know, John," Jeremy said. "But is that what you're planning on telling Storm and the others tonight?"

"It could work—"

"No, it won't," Jeremy quickly said. And when he noticed John's distant and unfocused eyes, Jeremy quickly wondered just how much did these things really bothered the fire mutant. Sighing quietly, he said, "Look, if it helps, I'll help you tell them what really happened."

John's ears perked up at Jeremy's offers. "Really?" he pressed.

"Yes, John," Jeremy grinned, looking at the skeptical mutant beside him.

"You're willing to tell them everything?" John asked. "Even the part where you helped me?"

"Yes, John even that part."

"But what if they kick you off the team?" John said, sounding worried at the telepath's plan.

"They won't," Jeremy assured.

"Why won't they?" John pressed, furrowing his brows in confusion, wondering why the hell the telepath seemed so nonchalant about everything.

"Because I'm sure they need me more that I need them, easy as that," Jeremy replied, shrugging his shoulders in a fraction. "Now, c'mon, you pyromaniac, everyone's waiting."

Despite his obvious uneasiness, John allowed the faintest smirks form in his lips as he watched Jeremy stroll forward towards the bonfire. "Pyromaniac? Really, Jer?" he said.

Looking back, Jeremy just smirked back at John. "Yes, Pyro. Now, c'mon!" he called back, his smirk turning wider at the fire mutant's obvious grimace at his name.

Scowling deeply when he realized that he being made fun of, John quickly walked confidently towards Jeremy, with the very intention of lunging playfully behind the telepath's back. His confidence, however, began vanishing the minute he saw the X-Men.

The X-Men stared at John and Jeremy when they noticed the two approaching, the light and carefree air around them turning heavy and tensed as they both walked towards their circle. And while John froze on his place, the telepath didn't seem fazed at all and just walked towards the fire like he owned the damn place, sitting beside Kitty with a light-hearted smile that seemed so out-of-place with their current situation.

"C'mon, John!" Jeremy encouraged, realizing that John wasn't following him.

John gulped, not knowing what to do. His eyes travelled at the circle in front of him, his eyes stopping at Storm, who gave him a tensed smile and a small encouraging nod. John looked back at Jeremy, shaking his head slightly at a sign of no. Jeremy though, in turn just smirked at him, patting the space between him and Pete.

John scrunched his face up, and then took a deep breath. He wasn't afraid, John reminded himself. Even if Bobby was there, who earlier made a remark that clearly that said he wasn't having second thoughts on killing him. NO, he definitely wasn't afraid.

With that in mind, John took a deep breath and made a decision that he thought was the worst one yet:

He sat down with the X-Men.

Smiling gratefully at Jeremy, who smiled back at her, Storm broke off the tensed silence by clearing her throat. "So…" she said, grabbing the marshmallows behind her back and handing it to everyone around her, even John.

"Shouldn't these things go with sticks?" Kitty suddenly asked.

"I can't find it anywhere," She found it, just at the drawer where the marshmallows were stored. Normally she would've brought the sticks with her for some camp activity, but looking at Logan and Bobby, and then to John, it was best for those sharp sticks to not be used for now.

There was no need for blood to be shed during the night. Especially not with those sticks.

**o-o-o-o-o**

Dinner went well if John was going to judge it. Storm and Hank distracted everyone's attention by asking about schoolwork, keeping the conversations away from anything Brotherhood related. And while the others talked about everything else, John just sat between Pete and Jeremy, eating his marshmallows in silence.

Of course Bobby and Logan didn't even try to restrain themselves at hurling several insults and glares directed to John at every chance possible. But much to Storm's surprise, the fire mutant's only response was just eye rolling and keeping himself silent, to which she was eternally grateful for. It still went smoothly so to say, considering the fact that Logan and Bobby were there. John even thought that Hank and Storm already forgot about their interrogation night.

Too bad John was anything but correct about that.

"So, John…" Hank began, looking knowingly at him and Jeremy. "How exactly did you and Jeremy meet?"

Everyone's interest became obvious as they turned to both of them for some sort of explanation, looking at the two with full-on curiosity.

"W-well…you see, eh…uhm—"

"We met a week after Alcatraz, at the island itself," John's stammering quickly stopped when interrupted by Jeremy, who was looking at no one in the circle. "I was looking for my brother there, you see? He was a soldier too, and was never found again."

John looked at Jeremy in shock. He didn't know that. And by the look on the several of his team mates' faces, John was sure they hadn't known it until now too. That was some huge news in there. But why would Jeremy hide something like that from him? From them? He remembered the time Jeremy saved him from those huge stones. He recalled asking him the question of why was he there, with Jeremy just responding with a simple shrug and simply said, _"I just am."_

Well now that answers his question, John thought. And then looking over at the telepath, he could tell that Jeremy was in deep thought, as if thinking what really happened to his brother. With a small pat on the telepath's shoulder, John broke off the silence. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

This seemed to pull Jeremy out of his thoughts, who looked back at John and held the hand that was currently in the telepath's shoulder. "It's okay."

"But…how did you manage to enter Alcatraz?" Bobby suddenly asked. "I mean, the island was on the hold by the government. No one could enter that place unless you have permission."

"That's true," Kitty added. "It took us a whole month to get our permissions to enter the island. I remember the paper works that I had to deliver every day because of that."

Jeremy smirked, winking at Kitty. "Telepath, remember?" he said, tapping his temple with his index finger.

"Oh…" Kitty trailed off. "So you just controlled their minds?"

"Nope," Jeremy denied. "I visit there during midnight, and then place the guards that are guarding the island in a trance just to get in. I don't want to control other people's mind. I feel like taking away their free will."

Storm looked over at Logan, who was already glaring at her. Storm placed a very uncharacteristic smirk on her face, as if telling Logan, _"I told you so."_

Logan just growled and looked away, turning to John and Jeremy. "You didn't answer Hank's question," he said.

Jeremy rolled his eyes in irritation at the tone of his team mate but answered nonetheless. "I found John under a pile of huge stones on the last day I plan to visit that island. I accepted my brother's death after a week of not finding him on Alcatraz. It was just dumb luck that I heard John shouting for help."

"Wait, this John?" Pete exclaimed carelessly upon hearing. "_This_ John was shouting for help?"

John glowered slightly at Jeremy for his mention of him shouting for help. That was already embarrassing enough as it was! It also—Great, and now he could feel Bobby smirking at him. Gulping down what was left on his pride, John responded, "You got a problem with that, Pete?"

"No! Nothing, John," Pete disclaimed. "It's just seemed out-of-character of you to ask for help," he quickly covered up for his mistake.

"You people aren't the silent listener types, are you?" Jeremy noted, suddenly remembering that almost all of them had already spoke up to interrupt his story.

"We're just asking for elaboration on some parts of your story," Hank defended.

"Right…you could say that…" Jeremy trailed off, nodding slowly.

"So if you may continue?"

"Sure, Hank." Jeremy said. "So after I heard John shouting for—OW!" The telepath suddenly flinched, glaring at the fire mutant beside him, who was already looking at him with a raised eyebrow, as if daring him to continue what he was supposed to say.

Jeremy just rolled his eyes at John's not-so-subtle hit at his side (proven because almost everyone was looking at them with amusement) and looked back at the bonfire on front of him. "After I heard John _asking for assistance_," he smirked, emphasizing the last three words for John. "I went to go and see where it was coming from.

"I didn't know who did it at first, especially since no one was around and all of the guards were in a trance. So I used my telepathy to find if someone was really there or to see if my ears were just playing tricks on me. There was, though it was very small, it was somewhere under a pile of rocks."

"Very small?" Storm mumbled to herself. And as if realizing something, she looked over at Jeremy in complete alarm. "John's presence was very small?!" she almost shouted, asking for confirmation for what she had heard.

"Yes, Storm—"

"What about it?" Bobby interrupted, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

With a small sigh, Storm decided to answer to answer Bobby's question herself, since it looked like Jeremy was about to bitch slap the ice mutant for his ignorance. "I'm not really sure about this information but…" Storm began. "Jean once told me that when—" she paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "…when someone's presence was small…it means that they're on…" she trailed off again, looking at Jeremy to confirm her thoughts.

"That's true," Jeremy nodded; his tone flat and emotionless. "When there's a small presence that a telepath feels, either a baby is getting born, or someone's at death's doorstep."

Silence greeted the telepath's statement, the truth in his words hung suspended in the air as everyone sucked in a small breath.

Well…maybe not everyone.

"So how is that a bad thing?" Logan threw in the conversation, earning a slap in the back from Storm.

"LOGAN!" she chastised.

"What? You have to admit that Pyro dying is a good thing too!" Logan shot back.

"Logan!" Hank warned, the others in flinching in surprise at his tone. "It's never a good thing for a person to die!

"You guys implied I should kill Jean too!"

"But that wasn't Jean, Logan! That was a different person! A deadly person in fact," Storm shot back.

"And Pyro isn't?!"

"John stayed in the streets for almost a year, Logan! Mind you, he didn't even hurt a civilian!" Jeremy said, scowling at the animal.

"I thought you said you helped him?" Bobby suddenly asked.

"I did," Jeremy confirmed.

"Then why was he on the streets then?"

His scowl faltering a little, Jeremy ignored Logan's glare at him and continued his story, "The minute after I saw a small presence just under the rocks, I quickly rushed to it. I never expected someone could still be alive by then, but I heard another shout from the rocks, so I did the first thing that entered my mind, I lifted them.

"I seriously didn't expect that the person I would see underneath those boulders was St. John Allerdyce. I mean, when I heard the news the day before that, I'd seen that John's name was the first on the list of casualties. So it was a big shocker when I saw John under those rocks. I helped him get away from those rocks and we went to the apartment I rented for a month."

John, who had been abnormally and miraculously silent the whole time despite the hate he was receiving, picked up and continued the story. "We went to his flat after he found me on those rocks," he said. "And as much as I want to kill myself for admitting this but, I have to say I was pretty weak the whole time."

"Pretty weak?!" Jeremy looked at John. "You were barely breathing!"

"I was. But you have to admit I was still strong enough to shout the whole time you were there," John defended himself. "But anyways, Jeremy fed me while he was there. I told him how I got there, even the whole Brotherhood thing, which I think I now understand why he was so displeased about. He told me it was okay, and then we lived there for a month. But Jeremy had to leave so I had to stroll down the streets until you guys found me."

"Leave?" Hank repeated, looking over at Jeremy questioningly, just like everyone around the bonfire.

"My curiosity and interest about the Brotherhood began after John told me all about them and the X-Men," Jeremy explained. "The media couldn't give me enough information about the Brotherhood, so when John told me about you people I thought maybe I could go and learn more about the people who killed my brother. I became a teacher at the mansion two weeks after I left John. I gave him money and I left. I didn't know where he was until we found him today."

"So do you want revenge against the Brotherhood?" Storm asked, cautiously looking over to John when she asked the question.

"At first I wanted to," Jeremy affirmed. "But when I talked to John…I don't know…I just… I just sorta related to him. They were fighting for the right cause after all," he continued. "Just not in the right way."

"So you're not mad at the Brotherhood then?" Hank pressed.

"Hell no!" Jeremy instantly answered. "I mean, if I didn't know any better in their way of equality—no, superiority, to be exact," he corrected. "…and if I wasn't about to fight my brother there at Alcatraz, I would've joined Magneto and his pack of weirdos."

"HEY!" John scowled upon hearing the pack of weirdos line.

"Right…" Storm trailed off. "So…where were you then, John?" she redirected the topic, a little disturbed that Jeremy would've willingly joined Magneto's side if asked before.

Their school had enough Brotherhood members in trainee.

"I was on the streets," John replied. "I used the money Jeremy gave me to buy some food instead of shelter. Renting an apartment was so damn expensive, and I couldn't get a job because someone might realize who I am."

"So you were just on the streets, then?" Hank asked.

"Yeah, just wandering here and there," John answered.

Nodding slightly, Hank looked over at John and Jeremy. "Okay so to get things completely brief," Hank paused. "You woke up on the first week after Alcatraz, right?"

John nodded.

"And while Jeremy was looking for his lost brother, he instead, found you?"

John and Jeremy nodded.

Looking over at Jeremy, "And then you brought him at the apartment you rented…"

"Yes."

"…and fed him there, and then placed him back to his original health."

"Yes."

"Then after a month you left him and became a teacher at our school."

"True…"

Hank then turned to look at John. "While you, John, on the other hand, wandered around the country alone…" he said skeptically.

"Yes, Beast. _Alone_," John emphasized, knowing what the furball was implying.

"Without anyone?"

John nodded, entertained. "Without anyone," he assured.

Hank seemed satisfied of his answer. "Okay," he smiled, nodding slightly, and then turned to look a Storm, who was also giving him a smile and a nod.

His eyes slightly narrowing at the small interaction that he happened to notice between Storm and Hank, Logan's eyes instantly widened in utter terror at what the other two were trying to tell each other. "Wait, does this mean you guys believe in him?" Logan spoke, clearly not amused at the way things were turning out.

"Yes, Logan," Storm answered calmly, giving a stern look in Logan's direction.

This, however, didn't work, as Logan stood up in frustration. "WHAT?! Do you guys know what you're getting into with this one?!"

"We do—"

"NO, YOU DON'T!" Logan contradicted, looking angrily at everyone. "So what? You're planning on putting that _fugitive_ in the mansion, now?"

"Logan, please!" Storm pleaded. "This is for the best."

"It's not," Bobby said. "What do you guys intend on telling the authorities about this?"

"The truth," Hank quickly said. "They can't do anything to John, Bobby. He's been given a pardon, remember?"

"But why keep him?" Bobby asked. "Don't you think it's best to just leave him alone in here? I mean, what about the students?"

"That's true…" Pete said. "No offence, John, but if the parents of our students finds out that we're keeping John…well, I'm not sure that they'll be comfortable with it."

John smirked. "None taken, Rusty."

"Look, guys, I understand your concerns but…the people had long accepted John's pardon, okay?" Storm assured.

"Only, because they all thought that Pyro was dead!" Logan argued. And noticing that Storm and Hank didn't seem so fazed at all, he said, "Look, if you people want to keep the reputation of the school as the safest school for mutants in America, you guys have to know what you need to do to _him_," he warned, pointing and looking at John with complete distaste.

"Think about it," he continued, leaving the bonfire with a small growl, entering his and Warren's shared tent.

A short awkward silence was what Logan had left, leaving everyone surrounding the bonfire with a small time to even think about what had happened before Warren cleared his throat and spoke slowly and cautiously.

"Are you guys really sure that it's safe to share a tent with Logan?"

John smirked widely at Worthington's tone. "Please, he's not really that harmless. I mean, the last year I was there, he just stabbed Drake's bitch in the abdomen after having a nightmare."

Warren noticeably froze in his seat at what he just heard. Bobby, on the other hand, instantly exclaimed,

"My _what again_, Pyro?!"

**o-o-o-o-o**

Yawning widely, John sat up inside his tent, his bones cracking up painfully at his sudden movement.

"Ow!" he painfully moaned, then somehow realizing what he just did, his head quickly swiveled at the person sleeping next to him, who was still fortunately in deep sleep.

Sighing quietly in relief when he found that Jeremy was still sleeping beside him, John looked out of the tent, noticing that a small light was out of their tent.

That's weird, John thought, since the last time he checked, Storm had put out the fire earlier just after their almost murderous dinner earlier tonight, which John thought was slightly amusing considering that he had fun bashing Bobby's whore earlier too.

Still though, he was sure that the fire was put out earlier, so just who or what could that possibly be?

Crawling out of his tent, John's eyes quickly closed in pain as a bright light was directed to his line of vision. Barely having even time to register who did it, John was forced to step back and cover his eyes with the back of his hand until he heard Storm's voice.

"I'm sorry, John!" she said, turning the flashlight she was holding away from John.

Sighing quietly in relief once he had gotten over his little panic attack, especially since he actually thought that it was Logan planning to kill him on his sleep, John crawled out from his tent and looked at Storm with confusion. "What're you doing up so late?"

"I was about to set up another tent in here for me," Storm replied. "Warren woke me up and told me that won't sleep in the same tent with Logan because of what you said earlier tonight," she continued, giving John a pointed look, which only made John laugh.

"What?" John shrugged his shoulders. "What I said was true!"

"But you shouldn't have opened your mouth," Storm replied.

John just rolled his eyes in reply and looked around him. "So where exactly is Worthington?"

"I let him sleep in Kitty and I's tent for the night," Storm said, making John's lips curve upwards in a small smirk. "Warren's a nice man, John, and I think he cares for his private areas too much to even try and make a move on Kitty," she continued, replying to John's smirk that appeared on the fire mutant's face.

"Okay then…" John drawled out. "So the tent you're about to open is for you, then? Not for Worthington?"

"That was the plan. But I think I'll just wait for everyone to wake up. It's already dawn anyways," Storm answered. "So why're you awake then?"

"This is usually the time I wake up when I'm on the streets," John simply stated, moving over to what was left from the bonfire last night and taking a seat.

Storm just stared at John until he sat in front of what was left in the bonfire, moving and sitting next to him before speaking. "How was it? The life on the streets, I mean."

"Difficult," was the perfect description John could come up with. "But I was used to it," he continued. "I mean, I was kicked out of our house when they found out I was mutant so I had to live in the streets before. So I guess relocating myself back to the streets was not as hard."

"I'm sorr—"

"Don't be," John quickly interrupted. "I don't need your pity."

Storm nodded in understanding, knowing that the fire mutant had too much pride to accept her sympathies.

"I'm sorry though," John said, much to Storm's surprise, who was looking at him with shock.

"For what?"

"For…coming back?" John guessed. He seriously didn't know what possessed him to apologize like that. It just came out. And deep inside, he knew that he had to apologize for something. He just didn't know what.

"You don't have to," Storm said, knowing that the fire mutant was completely just as, if not, more than surprised than she was. "I know why you left."

Now it was time for John to be more than surprised, looking at Storm with complete terror. "W-what?"

Storm smiled knowingly at John. "I said I know why you left," she repeated.

John took a deep gulp and just looked away. "No, you don't," he said, far too quickly and defensively for Storm not to notice.

"Yes, I do," Storm shrugged, looking away from John. "I know you left because of Bobby."

John sure was thankful that he saw Storm looked away from him in the corner of his eyes, because if she didn't, she would've seen the pink tint in his cheeks that he was currently trying and failing to force down. "I didn't," he replied, and this time it was too shaky.

Storm just continued to look away from John, seeing that she was currently embarrassing the fire mutant endlessly. "You did," she contradicted.

"I didn't," John insisted.

"You can't lie to me, John," Storm warned, looking over to John, who still had a faint blush on his cheeks.

John scoffed. "So you're a telepath now?"

"No, but the professor is," Storm denied.

"The professor?" John asked, wondering how the professor had—Oh. Of course the professor would have known, John thought. "But how did you…?" John wondered aloud.

Storm sighed. "Professor had known about your feelings for Bobby, John. Even before you knew it," she explained. "So when Bobby and Marie came to our school, the professor told me to…" Storm trailed off, picking her words carefully. "…the professor told me to watch over you, John."

John just stared at Storm for a long time before asking, "He told you to watch…over me?"

Storm nodded slowly. "At first I didn't know why," she said. "But after a while I got why he asked me to do that…" she continued. "You're constant stares at Bobby wasn't that subtle anymore, not to me at least."

"So I was _that_ obvious?" John said in alarm.

"You weren't," Storm assured. "Only to people who really puts their complete attention to you."

John sighed in relief. "Thank God," he muttered. "That would definitely ruin my badass reputation."

Storm laughed. "The professor had known you were going to leave too, you know?"

"He did?" John asked.

"He did," Storm confirmed. "Well…just not the way we expected it. He knew that the jealousy was going to eat you up one way or another, especially when Marie and Bobby got official. It was only a matter of time before you left. What surprised both of us is that you joined Magneto's side."

"Well that's a little relief that I'm not really that predictable," John said, trying to break off the small conversation before it got to the Brotherhood talk.

Luckily for him, Storm took the ride. "Yeah that was a real surprise," she laughed lightly. "So…how do you feel on going back at the mansion?"

"I'm not sure I'm willing to see Bobby's bitch," John frankly said, grateful to the change of topic. "To be honest, I'm not really looking forward at going back at all."

"Marie is currently with her parents," Storm assured. "She's currently on leave."

"Here's hoping she won't come back," John muttered under his breath, happy that at least the bitch won't be there when he arrives.

Storm heard what John had said, but chose to ignore it. It's not his fault he's jealous of Bobby and Marie. "So are you going to come back, now?"

John shook his head. "No," he stated. "The others were right, you see? What will you say to the authority when they realize that I'm alive? And you guys were keeping me? What about your students? The parents of those children? Surely they won't feel safe at all when people find out that I'm there."

Storm thought over at what John said, picking her words out carefully before speaking. "We'll tell them the truth, John," she said. "They can't hurt you now."

"They can."

"But you'll be protected inside the walls of Xavier's school," Storm countered.

"And just now you began sounding like Professor X," John muttered playfully, smirking.

Storm laughed again. "Don't worry, John. We'll tell everyone the truth."

"And just what truth are we talking about here again?" John asked.

"That you won't hurt anyone willingly, John."

"You and I both know that won't work," John said, rolling his eyes.

"It won't hurt us to try," Storm insisted.

"Why are you guys so adamant on keeping me to the mansion?!" John exclaimed.

"Because we want to keep you on our watch," Storm bluntly replied. "I know that you're lost, John. And I think it's best for you to just stay in the mansion for now instead of letting other people to control you."

"But is it for the best?" John asked.

"For now it is," Storm said. "We'll let you take a rest in the mansion for now and if you think you're ready to go. We'll let you go."

"So…you're not going to keep me there as a prisoner?"

"Prisoner?" Storm laughed. "John, please, pardoned or not, I understand why you made your rushed decisions before. I'll always greet you as a guest, not a prisoner, and I'll welcome you there with open hands," she ended, grinning sincerely at John.

John, not trying to show that he was affected by Storm's words, just smirked. "Just like a mother would to a son," he joked.

Storm quickly glared at John before speaking. "I'd rather not have you call me your mother, John."

"What?" John exclaimed, smirking. "You're old enough to be one."

Storm's glare only intensified. "Do you have a death wish, John? I promise you I could zap you with lightning in a second."

"I'd rather not have that," John instantly replied, realizing that Storm was serious about her threat. Just where did the person who'd "welcome him with open hands" go? John thought.

Silence had passed between both of them, mostly composed of John waiting for Storm to calm down a little. She hadn't called herself Storm for nothing, John thought. And since he noticed that they ran out of conversations, John decided to leave, his decision made partly because he was nervous that his sarcastic-self shows up again and call her old for the second time.

He was too young to die.

"So…umm," John began. "I think I'm heading back to the tent. Try to catch up with some sleep before the sun finally rises," he excused himself.

Not wanting to wait for some kind of response from Storm, John nodded at the woman beside her before standing up, leaving behind Storm, who was still staring at the remains of the bonfire.

It was a good few seconds before John entered his and Jeremy's shared tent, his body finally feeling exhaustion at what happened the whole day. It felt like his ears had enough camp stories for the whole night.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait! I hope I have a better reason for updating so slow. But school had just started in our country so my updates are going to go slower than my slowness. I'll try to update every one to two weeks though. Hope my chapters are worth the wait.**

**But speaking of my chapters, this chapter (especially the last part) was sort of rushed. So if there were any spelling and grammar mistakes, point it out for me. I appreciate your help!**

**So again, just like what I said before, you guys are all amazing with the reviews! Thank you so much! :D**


	7. Going Back Home

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 6**

**Going Back Home**

"It's all fixed!" Hank announced, a few hours after Storm and John had their conversation. The latter between the two was near the woods with Jeremy, while Storm, just like her comrades, looked over to Hank with glee.

"Finally!" Storm said. "I can finish the paper works that I had to finish before tomorrow."

The others smiled and cheered with her, glad that they were going home too. Warren's voice though, overpowered everyone else's at his own announcement. "I just received a call from Sandy," he spoke. "She said she was going to watch over the jet."

"Wait, you guys are still on?" Pete asked, coming out from inside the jet, having heard what the winged-mutant just said. "Here I was thinking that you broke up with her last week."

"We did," Warren said. "Only we got back together the day after that."

Pete just smirked. "We'll see about that after she finds out that you slept in Kitty's tent last night," he said. "Alone," he emphasized.

Kitty grimaced from what she was doing, which was fixing the tents, while Warren scoffed and rolled his eyes. "If you're jealous about that one tin man you should just say so. Girls like Kitty aren't my type."

The tin man blushed at the jealous part, choosing to ignore the comment rather than answer back. Looking at John and Jeremy, who were at the end of the open field, the tin man asked to change the topic. "So who's gonna call them?"

"Don't," Logan butted in. "The plan's to leave the pyromaniac here," he grumpily said.

"And Jeremy?" Warren pressed.

"Leave him here too," Logan bluntly answered. "If furball and Storm are that desperate to let him be with us, it's best to have that telepath with him if we left the pyromaniac here. He _did_ help him once before."

"No one is going to be left behind here, Logan," Storm joined in, catching the thrown bag of tent from Kitty. "We're taking everyone. Even John."

"You can't be serious here, Ms. Munroe," Bobby came with Hank, joining the circle the group, except Jeremy and John, had made. "I mean, Logan's right. Pyro's dangerous, and were not even sure about Jeremy's loyalties are now. Especially when he clearly implied last night that he was willing to join Magneto's cause if not for his brother."

"He has to come with us though," Hank reasoned.

"And why?" Bobby asked.

"I just called the authority about what happened yesterday, even John's sudden appearance," Hank explained.

"So John's okay with it?" Kitty asked.

"Well…" Storm trailed off. "We actually hadn't told him anything yet."

"Well damn…" Warren muttered, looking curiously over the two mutants who were still talking far from their circle. He'd heard a lot about John Allerdyce, one of the people who'd tried to kill his dad and failed. Can't blame the guy though, Warren thought, especially when he knows why he'd done it.

"So should we call them now?" Pete asked, breaking the short silence.

Storm nodded. "Yes, Pete. Thank you."

**o-o-o-o-o**

"Should I be grateful that they hadn't killed me yet?" John asked nervously, his and Jeremy's backs turned away from the group.

"Logan managed to restrain himself the whole night," Jeremy answered, his eyes trained at the forest in front of them, trying to ignore the pairs of eyes that were staring intently at both of them. "I guess that's an improvement."

"It's not," John countered. "The more I stay in the mansion, the more his hate grows for me."

"Don't worry," Jeremy assured. "Logan's tamed now, unlike the past few months."

"Now _that's_ one huge improvement," John commented dryly.

Chuckling lightly, Jeremy was about to retort another witty remark when he noticed Pete's presence going towards them. Turning around, Jeremy gave the tin man one huge smile. "Hey, Pete!"

Turning around when he heard Jeremy greet Pete, John just gave a small nod in the tin man's direction. "Rusty."

"Hey, Jer, John," Pete acknowledged the fire mutant. "Hank said that the jet's all fixed. We're about to leave within half an hour. Thought we should give you guys a head up."

Jeremy nodded gratefully at Pete's direction. "Thanks, Pete."

Knowing that he won't be receiving any kind of response from John anytime sooner, Pete nodded back at Jeremy, turning his heels and walking away.

"Oh, wait!" Pete turned around, going back to the pair. "Storm said that you guys should be aware of media filling you guys with questions later too," Pete said.

Raising his eyebrow with complete bewilderment, John asked, "And why is that?"

"Hank and Storm had told the authorities about you being alive, John," Pete said.

"WHAT?!"

**o-o-o-o-o**

Jeremy sighed for what he was sure was his fiftieth one, looking over to the sleeping fire mutant beside him. Thank God that John was finally exhausted and fallen asleep, the tensed air was literally unbearable!

After John had heard about the whole "tell the authorities" thing, the fire mutant quickly marched to Storm and Hank, shouting and screaming all the profanities he could say while everyone stood there dumbfounded, even Hank was surprised that there were _that_ much profanity in the English dictionary. Just hearing those words that came out of John's lips…

Jeremy literally shivered just at the memory of it. He'd rather not have nightmares.

"You think he can keep himself calm?" Storm's voice broke Jeremy's thoughts, walking over to him and John.

"After what he just discovered? I don't think so," the telepath bluntly replied.

Storm sighed loudly. "I'm sorry. We should've thought that this thing was asking for disaster."

Logan just scoffed loudly from his seat, having heard their conversation. "You should've," he advised with a hint of growl in his voice. "But since now that we got this settled, and that you people are now aware that you weren't on your right mind when you brought that pyromaniac here, may I just give another tip of advice?" he paused. "Open that damn ramp so we can leave that fugitive there in the woods before he wakes up and causes another set of chaos."

Storm sighed again in pure exasperation at what she just heard.

"But we're on the air…"

Kitty looked at Warren with a deadpan look. "I think that's Logan's point here, War."

"Look, guys," Storm began, looking at everyone in the jet, and preventing Warren from ever responding to Kitty. "John had his reasons when he left during the Alkali lake mission."

"That doesn't redeem himself, Storm."

"That doesn't. I know," Storm agreed.

"Then why take him with us?" Logan pressed, confused.

"To change him," Storm answered. "To remove the mentality that Magneto placed in his head."

"So you actually think that John was just invited in the wrong side of the tracks?" Kitty asked, confused too. "That if weren't for Magneto; John would still be with us? Part of the X-Men, perhaps?"

"I'm not saying part of the X-Men, no," Storm corrected. "God knows what John would've done if he was part of the X-Men. I don't need another short tempered idiot that needs to be tamed," she said, looking pointedly at Logan.

Jeremy chuckled slightly at the parallel personality of John and Logan, earning a glare from the latter. "What? It is true. You and John are _so_ short tempered and could kill if not stopped," he defended himself.

"You do know it's also his fault right?" Bobby suddenly spoke. "I mean, anyone in his right mind wouldn't join Magneto if not pushed, right?"

"He _was_ pushed, Bobby," Storm answered, looking Bobby right in the eye. "It's just that the people who pushed him just didn't realize it was them."

Bobby was a little peeved by the way his past teacher was looking at him. Like, she was trying to tell him something. He already got why John was needed to be taken with them; he knew that John was needed to be reformed if they were to allow him to wander in the streets alone someday. But the part that he still didn't get was why did Storm look so damn calm about everything? It was already given that she was surprised, yes, but after getting over the shock itself, Storm just seemed so cool about it, that it's not like any past Brotherhood member was in _their_ jet taking the mutant back to _their_ sanctuary, and was to be brought back to _their_ home.

Storm knew something, Bobby decided. And by the way she was looking at him now, he knew it was something related to him. But what the hell is it? That _push_ Storm was talking about, was it him? No, it can't be him. But if he was, then how did Storm know? No, wait, how come it was him was the better question!

Damn, he was driving himself nuts by these things.

Shaking his head to clear out the thoughts in his head, Bobby noticed Jeremy staring at him. "What?" he scowled.

Jeremy just stared at Bobby. "Nothing," he muttered after a moment, looking away.

Bobby's head felt like exploding, and now it was Jeremy's turn to look at him the way Storm had been looking at him earlier. But why?

"Bobby," he noticed Storm sat beside him.

"Hmmm?" he inquired.

"I'm asking how you're holding up to this whole thing," Storm answered. "With John coming back to the mansion."

"I don't like it," Bobby bluntly said. "Why do we have to bring him back with us? Why not just leave him there on the streets? It's where he belonged in the first place."

Storm just stared at Bobby with surprise, expecting that there would be at least small sympathy on Bobby's part. "Bobby," she began. "Do you want to face John again in the battlefield someday?"

There was a short silence before Bobby admitted slightly, "No."

"Then why do you want him to stay on—"

"Look, I don't see the connection, Ms. Munroe. I'm sorry," Bobby interrupted, crossing his arms defensively.

"Bobby, I want him on our watch," Storm explained. "It's best if we have John with us for now. Outside on the streets is too dangerous for him, Bobby. What if Magneto finds him? Ask him again if he wants to join the Brotherhood? It's possible, Bobby. Just yesterday John and Multiple Man were in the same place together. What if Multiple Man found him first? What if he was asked again to join the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah but John doesn't have a reason to join the Brotherhood now, Storm," Bobby said. "Just like what you said, John joined the Brotherhood because he was _pushed_, and now that there's no _push_ to encourage him to join the Brotherhood, he might decline Magneto's offer."

Storm's lips quirked up slightly at Bobby's observation. "That's true," she admitted. "But do you know why John joined us without any complaints?"

Bobby again fell silent. Yeah, he did not notice John complaining about going back to the mansion. "Because..." he trailed off.

"Because?" Storm pressed.

"Because he wants to spy on us! That's it!" Bobby exclaimed, making Storm sigh.

"Seriously, I've had enough X-Men conspiracies for today, Bobby. All of them, from Logan."

"Yeah, but what if John's already a part of them and he's only going with us as a spy?" Bobby suggested.

"Heard that."

"Well, what if he's there to kill one of us? Or worse, me? Since you know, I _did_ butthead him back at Alcatraz."

"Heard that too."

"But what if he's there to pull the X-Men down?"

"Heard that. Several times, Bobby."

Bobby again fell silent, desperately finding some reason onto why could John be with them.

"Do you give up?"

"NO!" Bobby exclaimed, again falling silent as he tried to find some reason. And when he found none realistic enough, "Okay, I give up. Why?" he grumpily said.

Storm smirked slightly. "Easy," she said. "He needs food."

Bobby scowled. "What?!" he inquired.

"Every human being needs food, Bobby. Even John," Storm said. "And in his mind, he knows we can provide him with food and shelter, so he has no choice but to come with us, Bobby."

"Okay…I'm starting to get the point. So John's coming back with us because he knows we can provide him with his necessities, but back to the main topic, why can't we leave John on the streets then? I know you care about him, Ms. Munroe, but…majority of the team doesn't want him here. He _can_ decline Magneto's offer, it just depends on him if he wants to join."

"I know he can decline Magneto's offer, Bobby," Storm confirmed. "But just like in our case, Bobby. He has no choice. If we leave him now and the Brotherhood finds him first, John will have no choice but to join them. Right now, the first one to offer John the best will win."

"Yeah, but…is John really that important that we're having a fight on who gets him first?"

"He may not be important, Bobby," Storm said, standing up. "It's just that I don't want to face more familiar people in the battlefield when things get serious all over again."

"Please…" Bobby muttered, smirking. "As if we hadn't faced an entire army of mutants before."

Storm chuckled lightly at first, but got serious after a moment. "Please, Bobby. I'm trying to get you to be cool with the idea. Do it for me please, if not for John's sake, for me."

Bobby was silent, but nodded after a short while. "I'll try."

Storm smiled gratefully. "Thank you," she said, leaving, but suddenly stopped in her tracks. "Oh and by the way, I'm letting him back to us because I think he still has unfinished business too, you know. Mostly, I think is about you and him."

Bobby blinked in surprise, wondering what she was talking about by "unfinished business". Voicing out his thoughts, Bobby was even more surprised by Storm's reactions.

Storm smirked. "Oh, you know," she shrugged. "Typical friendship fall-outs, loneliness…I think John even mentioned something about sexuality," Storm said, winking slightly at Bobby. "Do you know what he's talking about by that?"

Bobby groaned. "Fuck," he muttered. He knew Storm knew something! Well damn then, it looks like this was going to be a long way back home.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry about the shortness. xP Even for the long wait. Sorry. :| School had been bombarding me with its craziness.**

**This chapter wasn't proofread yet. I just knew I needed to post this so bad. So excuse my grammar mistakes, even the spelling ones.**

**Reviews are truly appreciated! :D I still need feedbacks on my writing. :D**


	8. First Night Madness

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 7**

**First Night Madness**

A small knock on the door made John look up, a slight feeling of anxiety going through his spine as he watched Pete open the door of Storm's office as he lead two more people enter inside. The first person who entered was a guy, who looked like in his mid-40's, wearing a formal suit as he entered Storm's office with poise. And just after him was a girl, in her early 20's, looking frazzled as she carried with her a huge bag and a set of clipboards and papers. The guy was the one spoke first.

"Ms. Munroe," he greeted, his voice raspy as he shook Storm's hand, which in John's opinion, was a _very_ firm handshake.

"Mr. Nhiles," Storm greeted back, a small smile entering her lips. And then turning to the girl, Storm's smile widened, "Candace," she greeted her.

"Ms. Munroe," the girl replied with a small nod.

"John," Storm said, looking at John, who was currently sitting beside Jeremy on the couch. "I would like you to meet Mr. Dustin Nhiles, one of the heads of the Human-Mutant Relation Department."

John looked up in the mention of his name, his eyes meeting Nhiles's, before a small, sarcastic grin slipped through his face. "Mr. Nhiles," he said, standing up, offering his hand to shake.

Mr. Nhiles just stared at John's offered hand for a few seconds, then briefly moving over to John's face, then back again at John. "Mr. Allerdyce," he said, his voice flat, taking John's offered hand.

Damn, he wasn't wrong earlier, John thought. The man _could_ give a firm handshake. And apparently, it looked like he was on the receiving end of this handshake.

John knew Mr. Nhiles had noticed his discomfort, as he smirked, letting go of John's hand. John refused the urge to shake his hands to make the painful feeling on his knuckles go away.

A tensed silence followed after that, and while John tried to hide the small feeling of fear that was instilled into him by the man in front of him, Mr. Nhiles just smirked wider, large enough that John even thought he could already see the back of Nhiles's mouth.

Luckily for him though, Storm had noticed the small and silent interaction between both of them and cleared her throat. "So…Mr. Nhiles, would you like to take a seat?" she asked.

John sucked in a small sigh of relief, watching as Nhiles took a seat in one of the couches opposite to where he and Jeremy were seated.

John followed Nhiles's actions, going back to take a seat beside Jeremy. And just when he thought everything was going okay, Nhiles spoke from his seat,

"So Mr. Allerdyce," he began. "Would you like to explain to me the details of your unlikely survival?"

From shaking his knuckles, up to the urge of breathing a sigh of relief, John now fought the urge to groan loudly.

Not again, he whined loudly in his head, not even caring if Jeremy was to hear of it, and probably tease him about it later.

**o-o-o-o-o**

_Oh, you know, typical friendship fall-outs, loneliness…I think John even mentioned something about sexualities._

_Something about sexualities_

_About sexualities_

_Sexualities_

Bobby tightened his clutch on the pen that he was using to mark his students' papers, again hearing what Storm had told him back at the jet just a few hours earlier, the last word hanging suspended around his head for more than a moment longer.

What the hell was up with that? Bobby found himself asking. He knew that John was…was gay, but, what did it have to do with everything? Bobby had pushed John away because of his preferences, yes, but what did it have to do with him going back?

Why was it even considered as an "unfinished business"? Didn't John get the message the last time? That Bobby didn't want anything to do with him now, especially when he chose to side with the Brotherhood? No wait, he was _pushed_, as Storm told everyone. Still though, did John need a proper closure on that certain issue? He thought it was already closed. It was supposed to.

But fine, since John wanted a closure, he'll be sure give it to him, Bobby thought, determined.

"Knock, Knock," suddenly came a voice from behind his door. Bobby looked at it, surprised, having been pulled out from his thoughts. He came to open the door, where Pete stood.

"Pete?" Bobby asked.

"It's dinner, Mr. Work-aholic," Pete teased, knowing how well Bobby can concentrate at work, especially with no one distracting him in the least, since Marie was still with her parents.

Bobby blinked confused, looking back at his windows, where he noticed that the sun had already gone down. Time _did_ fly so fast.

"Right, sorry," Bobby muttered. "I'll be there."

"Good," Pete replied, leaving.

Bobby closed his door, taking a deep breath after. He looked back at his desk, then at the stack of papers that he needed to mark, which he noticed looked like it was untouched since he came back earlier. Was he thinking that much?

Bobby sighed, he probably was. He changed his clothes, slipping into a more comfortable T-shirt than the one he was wearing earlier. Opening his door, he was again surprised as Pete was still standing there, looking like he was about to knock.

"Good job at being able to change your clothes that quick," Pete teased him. "I actually thought you were back at marking papers. Finished all of them now?"

Bobby rolled his eyes. "Ha Ha," he faked laugh. "Not really, actually," he admitted. "To be perfectly honest, it looked like I didn't do anything productive since we came back."

"Oh?" Pete muttered as he walked with Bobby to the dining areas. "Tired?" he guessed.

"One of the reasons why," Bobby said. "But mostly about John."

Pete looked at Bobby curiously. "Really? What about?"

"Oh you know, him coming back and all," Bobby dismissively answered.

Pete knew that there was probably something deeper than what Bobby had just told him, but decided not to press further, knowing that the ice mutant needed some time to adjust to Storm's plan of keeping John.

"Here we are," Pete said, opening the door to the private dining room of the teachers and faculty. Normally he wouldn't have the need to mention the words, especially since the person he was informing it lived far longer than he did at the mansion. He did know though, that he did the right thing when he saw Bobby slightly jump in surprise.

"Thanks," Bobby simply muttered, walking inside the room. He took an empty seat beside Warren, and took a quick a look around the room, Pete was just taking a seat beside Kitty, while Storm, Jeremy, and Hank were missing.

And while he had a feeling he already knew where the three were, Bobby couldn't help but ask. "Where are the others?"

"They're still at Storm's office," Kitty answered.

"Yep, and if you ask me they seem to have a rather _long_ conversation in there," Warren added. "What do you guys think they're talking about?"

"Talking about?" Logan spat out. "I'd prefer if they were tying that pyromaniac now, chopping his body and then cutting open his abdo—"

Kitty cleared her throat loudly. "Logan, we're eating," she reminded, cutting off Logan and looking at her plate disgustedly. "I think it's best that you keep your mouth shut for now until the end of dinner, or at least until I'm sure that I'm not going to throw up everything I ate."

Logan sighed. "I was just saying."

"I know," Kitty replied. "Just saying that this isn't really the best place wherein you can tell the dirty things you'd love to do with John."

Warren coughed, trying to at least cover up the laugh that almost escaped his lips. This however, didn't work, as Logan passed his dirty glares from Kitty to him.

"What?" Warren defended himself.

"Back-off," Logan warned.

Pete smirked, looking at the people he ate with, until he noticed Bobby. "Bobby, are you alright?"

The ice mutant almost jumped from his seat. "Wha-? Uh…oh, yeah. I'm fine."

Kitty raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "You hadn't even touched your food yet."

"I don't think I have the appetite," Bobby said.

"C'mon," Warren encouraged. "Eat. You're gonna need it."

"Is this because of John?" Pete asked.

Bobby sighed in response.

"Is it really that bad?" Warren asked. "Living with John, I mean. Doesn't he look slightly helpless without fire?"

Kitty laughed. "You're saying that now," she answered. "Just wait until you hear the loud fire alarms shrilling in the middle of the nights because of him."

"Well goodbye to my dreamless nights then," Warren said.

"I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be that bad," Pete tried to say.

"Oh hush," Kitty cut off. "It is going to be that bad."

Pete sighed, and was about to comment further, but stopped when the door to dining room opened, revealing Storm, Hank, Jeremy, and not much to his surprise, John.

"Hey, guys," Storm greeted, taking her seat at the head of the table, the others following suit, except John of course, who stood there awkwardly at the doorstep.

Storm noticed it, and gave him a warm smile. "C'mon, John," she encouraged. "Take a seat. You need some food."

Everyone pretty much heard Logan's ferocious growl, all of them tensing to the sound. That didn't seem to stop Storm though, who just glared at him at the corner of her eyes. Looking back at John, she smiled softly, "C'mon John."

John didn't know what and how to respond. He wanted to decline, especially after Logan's unfriendly invitation. But then again, he didn't want to refuse the food that was in front of him, the meat begging for him to just shove them already at his mouth and—

John heard Storm clear her throat slightly, making him look back at everyone at the table. They were all looking at him, except for Logan, who was clutching his spoon and fork tightly. John took a deep gulp, and his eyes suddenly met Bobby's, who was looking at him with a look that he did not understand.

John saw that Bobby's jaw was clenched tightly, his hold on his utensils so tight that it looked like his hands were already ice. John wanted to know what that meant. Was that a good thing?

Oh of course not, some part of John's brain told him. And then John had no choice to agree to his head, really, since when did Bobby want to have anything do something good to him?

Sighing quietly, John forced his thoughts to back of his mind, tore his eyes away from Bobby, and then moved quietly to his seat beside Jeremy, which of course, made him _unintentionally_ sit just across from Bobby.

Honestly, what was it with fate that brought him to such absurd situations?

Thankfully for him though, Kitty started asking Storm about what happened to the meeting, why were they so long…blah blah blah…

Looking down on his food, trying to be non-existent to everyone, John forced himself to listen to the conversations around him, also trying to ignore the pair of eyes that seemed to be burn—no, _freezing_ his head for at least quite some time now since he took a seat on the dining table.

Daring to take the risk, John looked up through his eyelashes, noticing that Bobby was still staring at him. It was then that he also started to realize how much he missed staring on those pair of blue eyes. Those blue orbs were always so readable to him before, but ever since he came out to Bobby, those pair blue had always gave him the icy cold breeze that made John always think that Bobby was intentionally doing it to simply say that he "needs to freeze his fucking ass off".

_Look away! Look away!_ Something in his mind was already reminding him. And while he really wanted to look back, his disobedient body just can't. His eyes still trained on the other pair of eyes that were also transfixed on him.

"So, Bobby? Did you finish all of your schoolwork?"

John looked as Bobby almost jumped back in surprise, looking over at Storm, telling her that he wasn't finished yet, and was planning on finishing them now.

"But it seems like you haven't even touched your food, my boy!" Hank said.

Bobby just shook his head. "I just don't have the appetite," he simply said, mumbling another stupid excuse then leaving the table.

Storm shook her head in slight amusement. "Bobby seriously is the biggest work-aholic in here, is he?"

Kitty smiled. "Of course he is."

And just like that, the conversations went back to the usual, the usual being about school work, and other irrelevant mansion business things. John really didn't care. His mind was still reeled over about what happened earlier. Bobby and his eyes met. What the fuck was that all about? And it wasn't him who started the staring match, Bobby was the one who initiated it by staring at him first, John just followed his lead.

He seriously felt light-headed the whole dinner, and the next thing he knew he was already inside his shared bedroom with Jeremy, thinking about what was going to happen now that he was back.

His mind was filled with confusion. Confusion even he didn't know what was about. Questions filled his mind throughout the whole night. His mind was asking him: _What about Bobby? What's going to happen now? How are you planning to act now? Are you going to stay here forever? What if—_

Damn! He was going to kill himself with his questions!

John stood up from his bed, walking to the door of his shared bedroom with Jeremy. Turning the doorknob, John almost jumped when Jeremy spoke.

"Where do you think you're going?"

John looked back at Jeremy, who was now sitting straight on his side of the room, looking straight at him.

"Just outside. I need some fresh air."

Jeremy raised an inquisitive eyebrow on John's direction, silently asking for more elaboration.

John knew what Jeremy was asking for, but what will he tell him? Even he didn't know what was going on in his head right now.

"I know you're confused, John," Jeremy's voice gently told him.

"Well of course I am!" John answered, his voice rising slightly. Then as if realizing what he'd done he said, "Look, I'm sorry, alright? I just need some air."

And then he left their room, not even bothering to hear what Jeremy has to say. John knew he had acted rude, but Jeremy will understand. He was a telepath after all, if there's anyone here who could read his confusion it would be him. So with that in mind, John headed outside, sitting on the front porch of the mansion, staring blankly at the basketball court in front of him.

His mind whirled with questions, questions even he didn't understand what for. Taking a deep breath, John pulled out the small lighter Jeremy gave him earlier before they arrived. He opened it, and then closed it again. He opened it, and then lifted a small fire on his hands, feeling the warmth and comfort the fire was giving him.

John closed his eyes in eternal gratefulness for the pleasure the fire was giving him, not only for the warmth it was providing for the chilly November evening, but also for the slight distraction it provided him from his problems. Honestly, he didn't even know what was up with him anymore, the last time he checked, he only got here because he had the pure intentions of helping _Jeremy_ and not the X-Men. And then one thing led to another and the next thing he knew he was in here now, back at the mansion, living in the same roof with the guy he used to love. The operative words: _used to_.

He knew how he was acting lately: a weak, and a pathetic being. He had been at the negative end of the team he tried to help just a day ago. Naturally the John before shouldn't have acted like a six-year old kid being chastised by his mother whenever he hears a negative comment about him. But this time, the regret with what he'd done before had mashed into the feeling he always got when he heard another ruthless comment about him.

He was feeling sorry for himself. A feeling he knew he shouldn't be feeling. He needed to be tough, he needed to be that ass everyone else used to see, that snarky blonde that always had the air of trouble around him.

That was him. The real him. And this scrawny-sorry-for-himself being needs to go. Right away.

A sudden feeling of coldness suddenly surrounded John's palm, making him let go of his lighter and throw it on the ground in front of him, getting the substance around it shatter into a million pieces.

Ice.

John recognized it right away when he saw the blue substance melt into water. Turning around, John took a sharp intake of breath when he saw who was standing behind him.

Bobby.

"Drake," John greeted when he turned around, meeting the ice mutant's eyes.

"You need to let go of that thing," Bobby gestured to the lighter on the ground. "It's going to be a trouble when the whole mansion wakes up because of the fire alarms."

"It's not as if I'm using it to burn this whole place, Drake," John said. "So calm that frozen ass of—"

John even didn't get to finish what he was supposed to say when Bobby had already pinned him down to the door, his jaws clenched, and his eyes filled with hatred.

"What is it with you?! Huh?!" Bobby hissed with hate. "Why did you even come back?!"

John was shell-shocked by the minute he was pinned at the front door, but just after that, he had recovered from his shock and pushed Bobby back with all the energy he had.

"That's none of your business, Iceman," John said, his tone equally defying Bobby's in the category of hatred. "So what if I'm back?" he continued. "It's not like it's gonna be a problem if you're planning on ignoring me. Seeing the last time I was here, you ignored like the plague you actually thought I was! Mind you, we were even sharing a room that time!"

"What? You thought it was easy?" Bobby almost shouted. "Of course it wasn't! Ignoring you was like ignoring a huge epidemic disease in our room before!"

"Bobby, being gay is _not_ a disease!" John exclaimed, knowing what type of "epidemic disease" Bobby was talking about.

"Of course it is!" Bobby countered. "It's a choice, John! You just chose the wrong one!"

"So what if I did?" John said. "It's not like I became different! I was still me!"

"You weren't! You like guys—"

"So what?!" John shouted, not caring if the whole mansion was going to hear them. If the fire alarms won't wake them tonight, this one will. "Did it change the fact that I like spicy food? That my favorite game is football?" John looked at Bobby with questioning eyes. "It didn't, Bobby! I just mentioned another unnecessary fact about me, that _you_," he pointed an accusing finger at Bobby. "…took personally!"

John took deep calming breaths after what he just said. That was what he was talking about earlier. This was him, he thought to himself. The strong him. The one who had the most probability of being Magneto Junior.

He looked at Bobby straight in the eye, letting him see the hate he was feeling for him. It felt good to finally express his frustrations to the fire mutant in the least, and whether this was a step backwards towards his plan of fitting in here. He didn't care. He needed to say that to Bobby's face. He had to show him how much he lov—loathed him after what he had done.

Suddenly, Bobby's eyes broke the contact. "Then you get what you want now," he muttered.

John's anger dissipated into confusion. What did Bobby mean by that?

"What do you mean?" he stated his thoughts.

"That's why you came back, right?" Bobby looked back at John with his eyes slightly narrowed. "You want to express yourself? You wanted a closure between both of us? There it is now."

John didn't understand. A closure? Since when the hell did he mention that he wanted a closure?

"You can leave now," Bobby's voice was plain. "Never come back. Our friendship? It's over, John."

Bobby went to push John away from the door and enter the mansion but John had managed to grab his arm. Bobby quickly pulled away at the contact, and looked back at John.

John couldn't think straight, his proximity to Bobby. Damn! He needed to control himself!

He took a small step back, and his eyes looked at Bobby with defiance. "What if I don't wanna leave?" he asked. "What if I want to stay?"

"You can't," Bobby instantly replied.

"I can," John dared. "And I'm staying here, even if we hadn't had a closure. You're not gonna be the one who decides for me, Bobby," he paused. "Not everything centers around you, Drake. You're not the only reason why I wanted to stay here."

Silence went between them, but then suddenly…

Fuck! John cursed. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! He just openly admitted to Bobby that he was staying here because of him! Shit! He didn't realize that he'd said that! And the minute it registered on his brain what he just said…

FUCK!

Bobby seemed to realize what John had meant to say too, because he obviously froze on his spot. Luckily, Bobby had chosen to ignore what he just said.

"Fine," his voice was strained, possibly because of what John had just accidentally revealed earlier. "You can stay. But don't fucking expect me to _speak_, or even _look_ at your direction," Bobby stated, opening the door to the mansion.

"Alright," John nodded, even though Bobby had already turned his back to him and can't see him now. "It's not like I was expecting you to do otherwise," John continued.

And just like that, Bobby had entered the mansion, leaving John alone outside to ponder what the hell just happened.

* * *

**A/N: I sincerely apologize for the long wait!**

**But expect me to update after a few more hours! =)**

**Review please? :D**


	9. The Balcony

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 8**

**The Balcony**

"Did something happen last night?" John heard Jeremy ask him for the twenty-first time this day.

Sighing quietly, John made no move to change his answers since Jeremy first imposed the question. "Nothing, Jer."

"Nothing?" Jeremy pressed further this time, unlike the first ones. "Are you sure about that?"

John paused in the busy corridor of Xavier's mansion just to look at the person currently interrogating him. "Yes, Jer. I am perfectly sure that nothing happened last night."

"So where did you go then?"

John shrugged. "You're a telepath, you figure that out," he said, walking away, not only from Jeremy, but also to the prying eyes that were staring at him, apparently thinking what-the-hell was the former fugitive doing back at the mansion.

Not that he cared of course. For he certainly didn't. He just wished that the students there nosy enough at least knew what discretion meant for the sake of it.

Ah fuck, students these days.

Finding himself going to the back door of the mansion, feeling like he needed some brand new fresh air, especially since he'd done nothing the whole day today but sit on the bed given to him, John found himself halting on his tracks when he noticed the back door locked.

"What the hell?" John muttered under his breath, taking a closer look at the padlock he sure didn't remember back at his student days.

When did that get here? John found himself asking just that, holding the padlock between his fingers. Back when he was a student this backdoor was usually open, it usually leads to a balcony in the back, where fresh air was usually prominent.

"You plannin' on burnin' that?" came a cocky, and an amused voice behind him.

Turning around, John saw the person behind the voice, standing behind him a few meters away, with a small smirk and an eyebrow rose.

Letting go of the padlock, John looked at the man squarely in the eyes, trying not to look embarrassed that he was caught looking like a 12-year old kid trying to open up a lock. "Worthington."

If John was to judge, the smirk on the blonde's face widened by a fraction. "We're on the last name basis now, _Allerdyce_?"

John shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Well we've never known each other formally yet. It's safe to say that calling you by your last name is the only thing I could do to acknowledge you in the least."

"Is that why?" Warren pressed, moving towards the door John was trying to open. "Or is it because I'm in the X-Men that you consider me your enemy now?"

Warren opened the door John was aching to open. Jiggling the key on his hand, Warren smirked when he noticed John literally sniff the fresh air that met his face when the door opened. The fire mutant was the exact picture of someone living on cloud nine.

Feeling eyes on him, John opened his eyes to see the other mutant smirking at him amusedly. He probably looked like a kid about to get his gifts on Christmas, John grumbled to himself. Damn.

Forcing down a small blush that was creeping up his neck, John scowled slightly and chose to continue the previous subject just to stir back the focus of the winged mutant away from the fact that he'd caught him in two embarrassing situations just on their first meeting.

"The X-Men is _not_ my enemy," John pointed out, brushing past Warren and proceeding to the balcony he used to stay at before he left the mansion. "Well…not anymore at least," he added.

"So what placed us in the last name basis zone then?" Warren followed the fire mutant outside, leaning his back towards the railing at the terrace.

"I don't know, our lack of proper introductions, maybe?" John pointed out dryly, glancing at the Worthington's heir for a second then back at the clear sky.

"Shouldn't you be up there right now?" John suddenly asked, looking pointedly at the sky above them.

Warren rolled his eyes, his smirk back at his usual lopsided one. "Just because I have wings doesn't mean I have to live up there."

"I didn't say you need to _live_ up there. I just thought that maybe you prefer flying right now than talking to me," John corrected.

"Well that was initially my plan, but then I caught you holding the padlock over there like a little kid," Warren teased, smirking at the small tint of pink that was creeping up the fire mutant's neck. What made it more hilarious though, was that the fire mutant was choosing to be indifferent and was currently pretending that he wasn't blushing when he in fact was.

Damn skin, John thought complainingly. Why did you have to be so white? Clearing his throat slightly, John chose to just be uncaring about the blush on his cheeks that he was completely aware of. "It's not my fault you guys chose to lock this door," he defended himself. "Seriously, why is the lock even necessary?" he continued to complain.

"Yeah well some kid before was too immature for his own good and tried to jump in here," Warren bluntly stated, his tone suddenly turning serious.

His eyebrow rising at the stupidity the kid had shown, and at the sudden change of the aerial mutant's nature, John couldn't help but ask, "Why would someone even dare try to jump in here? We're like…three stories above the ground!"

Warren let out a humorless chuckle. "The kid was a newbie here at the mansion. His parents just found out he was a mutant and kicked him out in the curb. Pete and I went to rescue the kid. But the kid was obviously too depressed and very disheartened at what just happened to him. So…he jumped," Warren ended his explanation simply, his tone and expression remaining solemn.

"What happened to him then?"

John kicked his own curiosity and stupidity in the inside. Fuck. He just had to ask that, did he? He ranted on his head. Worthington was obviously getting affected by the topic at hand and he just had to ask that. Damn to his insensitivity.

Luckily though, Warren just ignored John's tactlessness and answered his question. "He died," he frankly put out.

"O-oh…" John muttered, guilt bubbling inside the pit of his stomach. "Now I get why this balcony's locked."

Again Warren chuckled, nodding his head several times. "Yep."

John sighed quietly. Well then, looks like he needed to find a new hangout place. This place was locked up for several reasons. And while John liked it here before for its peacefulness, and for its lack of inquisitive young brats, he couldn't just get in here when he wants now, right?

"Do you always used to come here?" Warren suddenly asked, peering over at John curiously.

"Used to," John simply answered, nodding his head.

"So you want to come back here again?" Warren pressed.

John didn't know where the conversation was heading, but he still answered Worthington's follow up question. "I'd love to," John answered earnestly.

Smirking slightly, Warren fished out something inside his pocket, then handing it over to John, watching the fire mutant as realization started to dawn on him.

"You're giving that…to me?" John asked, disbelieving. He knew what the answer already was, but he needed confirmation.

Rolling his eyes, Warren thought the fire mutant already got what he was trying to imply. "Well, _duh_," he said, pushing his hand with the key out more, waiting for John to get it.

"Shouldn't you need this too?" John continued asking.

"I have lots of duplicates in our room," Warren assured. And when John still hadn't taken the key from his palm, he went to grab the fire mutant's hand and placed it firmly on the other's palm.

"There," Warren assured. "You can take that now. No more doubts."

"Why are you—"

"Warren!" suddenly came a voice from the door, interrupting what John was about to say.

John and Warren looked over at the newcomer, the former dropping his gaze as quickly as possible. There stood on the doorway was Bobby, who himself looked intrigued at the scene in front of him. The ice mutant's gaze moved from Warren, who he was actually looking for, then to John, then at their linked hands.

What the hell was going on here?

John noticed and felt the gaze of the ice mutant at him, and then suddenly at his hand, which he just noticed…

…was still held by Warren's.

Quickly pulling back his hand, as if electrocuted, John cursed at himself for not noticing sooner. Of course Bobby had the right to look at their hands like that, even a blind man could see what their linked hands implied. The ice mutant probably thought now that there was something going on between him and his comrade when there certainly wasn't.

But besides, even if he and Worthington didn't look like they were holding hands earlier, Bobby would've still thought the same. He knew how the ice mutant's brain worked. Knowing Bobby, he'd probably think that there were things going on before he came, with or without their connected hands suggesting anything. His former bestfriend was really just an assuming, ignorant, prat.

Warren felt his eyes narrowing in suspicion as he watched from the also suspicious Bobby, to the trying to be uninterested John, and then back at Bobby. There were some deep undercurrents here, he thought. And the way both mutants were acting like they were ignoring each other, and their reactions on the sight that unfolded earlier…he knew something was wrong, or at least, something was up.

He had heard about the fallout of John and Bobby's friendship in the grapevine too. The mansion's gossip ladies were that impressive, even he had to acknowledge. He heard that the reason why there was fallout between them was because of Marie. According to the rumors, John had once tried to make a move on Bobby's girl and the ice mutant had heard about it, causing the break on their relationship.

There were rumors about John being gay too. And that Bobby's views were the reason why their relationship broke down to shreds. Apparently even Warren thought of the idea improbable before, but now that he looked at things in front of him, the awkwardness and tension shared between the two didn't look like the awkwardness and tension he and Pete shared before when Pete's girlfriend had once slept with him and Pete found out the morning after. It's just that…the conflict between Bobby and John, they were more…personal, rather than girl problems.

So it was possible that the other rumor was true, that John was gay, that or another issue that Bobby probably disapproved of, and was therefore given the cold – no pun intended – shoulder by the ice mutant.

Smirking slightly when he found out that the friendship in front of him was a little more complicated than he first thought, Warren made sure to keep an eye over the two and man-gossip about it with Pete later. He was toying with a small theory in his head, and right now, several evidences are currently in front of him that literally gave his concept a framework.

It also probably didn't help John's case that the fire mutant was currently tinting pink over the ice mutant's penetrating gaze just now.

Clearing his throat slightly, he was going to think more into that later, Warren made sure to keep eye contact with Bobby when he spoke. "Is there anything you want from me, Bobby?"

The ice mutant slightly looked taken aback, who looked like he was pulled away from his own train of thoughts too. "Uh…yeah," he stammered. "Storm was looking for all of us."

Nodding his head, Warren started walking to the door when an idea suddenly entered his mind. Just to test his theory of some sorts, he decided.

"Hey, John!" he called back, emphasizing on the fire mutant's first name. And when he was sure that not only he got John's attention, but Bobby's as well, he continued, "I'll see you around, yeah?" he winked, then smirked when he noticed the fire mutant's eyes widened and the pink tint on his cheeks turned a deeper shade.

Turning around, Warren's smirk even widened a lot more when he noticed Bobby seething on the doorstep, glaring at the ground as if he was expecting it to crack under his gaze.

So maybe he was right after all, Warren thought. That the small theory he'd got from his head was actually the truth, or at least, just _near the truth._

* * *

**A/N: So as promised, here's chapter 8 =)**

**A few more hours and we'll have Chapter 9 on the way. :D**


	10. Mystery Phone

_DISCLAIMER_: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

**Chapter 9**

**Mystery Phone**

Yep, the stare could still make him sick in the stomach.

John could literally still feel the gut-wrenching glare Bobby gave him when he and Worthington left. Even if it had already been minutes that he was alone in the balcony.

And so much for asking himself into having a strong willpower either.

Just what the hell was up with him earlier again? Blushing? That was so un-John like! But he had to blame it on blondes. Yes, blondes. They usually have those types on effects on him. Every damn time.

Heaven's beard, he wasn't making any sense.

Holding the railing in front of him a lot tighter, John couldn't help but wonder what the look Bobby had sent him earlier meant. It was indecipherable. And John couldn't understand what Worthington was trying to imply earlier, too. There was something. A glint in the aerial mutant's eye that totally implied that he totally knew something, that he was clued on to a certain fact…

But what?

Whatever that may be, hopefully Worthington had a good intention inside his head, even if he had just met him and still looks at him as an unresolved fugitive case. And besides, why would the aerial mutant try to do something that would probably cause his ending demise right?

_Well, you did try to kill his dad once,_ the rational part on John's head answered him, making John feel like smashing his head to the metal railing in hopes to shut the voice at the back of his head up. Oddly enough, the voice inside John's head was also creepily becoming to sound a lot more like Jeremy's voice.

Again, he probably wasn't making sense. Even inside his head.

Shaking his head at his thoughts, John turned around and decided to leave the balcony. The students' lunch break should be over now, so they should be at their own classes. It was probably safe to go wandering around the corridors this time, away from prying eyes. But wait—hadn't Drake come here earlier to call for Warren? That there was some meeting for the X-Men or probably some faculty thing? John leaned more into the X-Men emergency meetings notion, especially since lunch break was almost over and it was against all logical sense to have a planned meeting at the designated time.

So with that in mind, another random question popped in John's head: did that mean that classes were cancelled? Or were there substitute teachers who'll replace the X-Men in their absence?

Gah! How should he know? He never even attended during classes before. Much less pay attention to the arrangement of the teachers when one couldn't make it!

Oh screw it, John resignedly thought, he was going back in his room now anyway, or at least to the lounge room for more relaxation. He'll probably give himself some aneurysm or something trying to figure out how the hell this mansion works.

**o-o-o-o-o**

Jeremy sat, more like slouched actually, twirling his phone between his fingers absentmindedly, not really paying attention to the emergency meeting Storm arranged at the last minute. She thought she needed some debriefing at what happened to their last escapade with Multiple Man, since she weren't there most of the incident and that a lot happened on this certain event. Not only that, but apparently, Nhiles had also asked for some sort of immediate summary over the incident that had passed last Saturday. Jeremy thought that was suspicious, since the old man didn't ask for such reports before, and that his team and the X-Men usually didn't stand on each other's paths when it comes to their missions.

So what exactly brought this on?

Did that issue over John really intrigue the old man?

Jeremy thought that it was probable. It was widely known over the country that Dustin Nhiles was one of the biggest Magneto man-hunter around. And Jeremy wasn't fooled by Nhiles overly neutral expression at their meeting yesterday either. He was a telepath for Merlin's sake! And while he had the moral principle to never _ever_ read another person's mind without their permission, Nhiles's neutral façade only made Jeremy a lot more suspicious. So he knew he just had to.

He remembered the feeling inside the older man's head. It was dull, like the literal definition of boring. Jeremy can't even remember yawning that much ever since his childbirth. There were lots and lots of documents inside the man's head. Permits, mutant files, heck! He even saw a blueprint of a robot hanging around inside the man's head. But luckily, even before Jeremy could even fall asleep back inside the man's head, he had found the information he was looking for.

Nhiles thought that John would somehow lead him into Magneto.

Ha, tough luck to the old man then, Jeremy thought, a smirk aching to pull up through his features.

But still, even though the information was totally irrelevant and unimportant to his _real_ task, Jeremy made a note to himself back then that there were a lot of _more_ interesting things inside the man's head. Perhaps he could report them to—

"So Jeremy, what really happened inside James Madrox's head?"

Snapping quickly back into attention, Jeremy slightly shook his head to clear out the huge fog of thoughts that had clearly taken over his entire head. Looking back at Storm, Jeremy gave the older woman a sheepish smile, implying that he wasn't really paying attention and that he requested her to repeat her question.

Laughing lightly when she quickly took the hint, Storm understood why the telepath was still out-of-his head. Maybe he was still exhausted, Storm guessed, knowing that Jeremy had never left John's side ever since they all got back from the mansion. She had asked him to keep an eye over the fire mutant, just in case John was again to cause trouble just like he once did when he was still on his student days.

"I asked what really happened inside James's head?" she repeated, giving Jeremy a small understanding smile.

_Oh._ Jeremy thought, so that was what she was talking about.

"There were mental blocks inside his head," Jeremy stated. "I managed to destroy it, but a girl with scary blue eyes was also inside his mind. The girl kind of threw me back out of James's head with what it felt like a simple flick on the wrist on her part."

Everyone stared at Jeremy confused. So there was a telepath on their side too then, Hank silently thought. Well, that wasn't good news.

"Not only that, but another mutant named Avalanche also came to Multiple Man's aid when Pete, Kitty, and I managed to corner him," Jeremy continued, shifting his gaze to his teammates.

"Avalanche?" Logan asked.

"Yeah," Kitty managed to reply before Jeremy could. "That was the only name he had given us."

"Well, do you guys know what his mutant abilities are?"

Moving his gaze back to Storm, Jeremy tried to recall what the other mutant did during the fight. "Seismic," Jeremy mentioned silently, but loud enough for the others to hear. "I'm not sure up to what extent his powers could really stretch but…it had something to do with the element of Earth."

Leaning back to her leather chair with a sigh, Storm felt her hand rubbing her temple slightly, feeling a migraine was coming up. Damn, now they were against another mutant, Storm thought to herself. A mutant they had no idea who other than the "code name" he'd given them.

"If I were you I'd look into the records of the previous Alcatraz brotherhood members," Jeremy suggested, looking at the stressed woman on her desk. "Maybe we could find a file over there that is at least slightly related to Avalanche's mutant abilities. I'll try to ask John too for some information."

Breathing in a small sigh of relief, Storm was silently grateful for the small suggestion Jeremy had given her. At least now she knew where to start looking.

Peering over to Hank, she looked at the blue-furred mutant that was looking back at her with a concerned expression. "Hank, would you please retrieve those archives for me?"

"I will," Hank answered. "I'll get them to you by tomorrow. Do you need any help looking over the documents?"

"That would be great. Thanks," Storm gratefully said.

A tensed and exhausted silence washed over the X-Men as they all dealt with the fact that there was again some villain out there, who could once more possibly revive the fire of the human-mutant war. It could be Magneto again, trying to continue his mission, but no one was actually sure.

A certain buzzing of a phone after a short moment of silence made the uneasy stillness disturbed, the sound coming from the phone Jeremy was currently holding. The telepath, aware of the eyes on him, opened his phone and noticed a new unopened message from a _very_ familiar number.

Successfully managing to fend off the smirk that threatened to pull up on his features, Jeremy opened the new message only to make his impending prevented smirk turn into a prevented frown.

_Open up your TV. NOW._

It was all deep breaths for all of them under a few more seconds before Jeremy suddenly spoke, his eyes never leaving his phone's screen. "Could someone turn on the TV please?"

His request was polite, but there was some urgency on his tone that made everyone look over at Jeremy in sudden curiosity, and for Pete to quickly garb the remote, turning the TV on as a voice of a female reporter registered on all of their ears.

"—_disrupting your favorite program for a flash report. Another mutant prison camp was again under ruins as an explosion around 12 pm this afternoon had disrupted the silence that was surrounding the whole site. Authorities currently speculate —"_

**o-o-o-o-o**

"—_that this was the work of the famous robber James Madrox, who just had his own spree with the police force last Saturday. Apparently this explosion caused a massive hole in one of the thick walls of the prison, and had caused most of the delinquents under custody to escape.—"_

John stared at the television screen in the lounge room with horror as the scene in the TV had revealed itself in front of him. A clip of a gigantic building was on fire as a helicopter was circling itself around it. And as the camera above them zoomed itself nearer to the crime scene, a few mutants who were currently escaping were facing the camera, looking glad and pleased, even mocking the camera with a few rude gestures. The huge hole on the wall of the building was obvious too, as were the fires that surrounded the whole building.

_This…this was the work of Multiple Man?_ John asked silently, petrified.

John couldn't comprehend how Multiple Man did all of that. He knew he had his duplicates to help him, but the way the fire mutant look at the chaos in the TV screen. Now how did Multiple Man do all of _that_ in a day alone, and without even being caught?! Surely surveillance in that area was packed pretty tight, right?

"Holy sweet hell," John couldn't help but mutter as he stared at the TV screen with an equally horrified stare that he did before.

Now he knew the feeling of shock that Hank and Storm probably felt when they discovered that he was alive.

**o-o-o-o-o**

"—_As a total, this is the fourth major mutant facility here in the U.S.A. to be attacked by terrorist mutants. The government is now currently in talks with Mr. Dustin Nhiles, the head of the Human-Mutant Relation Department, about how the conflicts between humans and mutant terrorists will be solved."_

On the same channel, the X-Men also found themselves petrified as they all stared in horror at the TV screen. The same clips that John had seen were shown in the TV screen wherein in the end, a picture of Mr. Nhiles was flashed in the screen to possibly notify the viewers who Mr. Nhiles really was.

And again, the X-Men had found themselves dumbfounded at what was happening. The mutant terrorist happenings were starting to become more active, having destroyed four mutant prisons now. That the police thought this was the work of Multiple Man alone had also caused stir ups and confusions in the X-Men's heads.

Something big was going to happen, Storm thought to herself. And whatever it was, her team and her school should be prepared no matter what occurs.

The X-Men had stared at the TV far longer in shock even though the TV was already showing a bunch singing teenagers in front of everyone. And of course, it was always Logan's role in the team to break such stillness, and usually, he did it with a cuss.

"What the fuck?" Logan found himself muttering in shock, a small shaky breath being released as if it was held there for almost a year.

"Why wasn't I informed about this?" Hank asked.

"I really don't think Multiple Man's alone in this," Kitty said, looking at everyone in the team.

"Well he's never alone," Warren responded wittily.

"Maybe he was with that Avalanche guy," Pete suggested. "I mean, seismic powers right? The last time used it was to make a wall, surely it's not that hard for him to _breakdown_ a wall."

Everyone else except Jeremy muttered their own agreements to Pete's put out thought. Sudden contributions on who else Multiple Man was possibly with echoed throughout the whole room, everyone else having their own opinions on the matter.

Of course again, except Jeremy, who was silently trying to be non-existent to the whole group, hoping that someone wouldn't remember that he was the one who alerted them to the news. He was going to be questioned how he found out what was being reported, and that would certainly put him under suspicious gazes, and while he could always blame it on his telepathy, he was pretty sure that no one would believe him this time, even if the extent of his powers weren't really revealed to them. That being said he couldn't reveal to them who was his informant either.

They're gonna have to find that out soon, Jeremy thought.

But maybe…maybe not now.

**o-o-o-o-o**

A few hours later, after the sudden flash report, the whole school was already buzzing with excitement at the fresh gossip. And while no one had actually had the chance to watch the report earlier since they had classes, the mansion's most famous gossipers had managed to get the news on their hands, having their own, twisted version of the news reported a few hours before.

John had even found himself snickering as he eavesdropped on the students' version of the bulletin.

Walking away from more pair of eyes this time, perhaps the students had actually thought that he was somehow involved in this incident, John went to the familiar corridor that led to his and Jeremy's room. Moving briskly with a small innocent whistle on his tune, as if pretending that he wasn't aware of some students following him, John made a move to open his door only to find it locked. Fishing the pockets of his own jeans, John cursed silently when he realized that the only thing on his pockets right now was the key that Warren earlier had given him.

Suddenly remembering what happened at the balcony earlier this day, John suppressed a shiver as he recalled how Bobby glared ominously at him. All the hate, revulsion, disgust—

John quickly shook his head, trying to get rid of the mental image that his head presented him onto how Bobby probably looked like earlier when he glared at him.

_He probably looked hot though,_ again, with the rational part of his brain responding at his own thoughts. Stupid brain, John complained.

Fisting his hands, John made a move to knock when he suddenly heard a shout from the inside.

"What?! Like, now, NOW?!"

It was Jeremy's, John recognized the voice right away. But who was he talking to? Pressing his ear at the door, John thanked the heavens that he could at least still hear some voices from the inside, and kicking himself internally at the same time for being as nosy as the students earlier.

Not a week in here yet and the students were already rubbing off on him the wrong way. Well, damn.

"—isn't ready yet," John heard. Who or what wasn't ready?

There were more muffled voices as John could only hear several pieces of Jeremy's conversation with someone.

"Are you sure that wasn't you, guys?"

"The whole team will definitely be surprised."

"Whatever. I've got some interesting reports for you, by the way. Make sure you wait for me."

"But what about John?"

John pressed his ear further towards the door, hoping to hear things more clearly now that his name was mentioned. But of course, fate, as he usually thought of before, always hated him to the bone. As the next thing he heard on the door was,

"Alright, alright. I'll see you guys over there. Bye."

John stood straight up on the door, hearing Jeremy sound like he was bidding his goodbye's to whoever he was talking to. And once the doorknob turned, John made the most innocent face he could come up with and tried to look like he was about to knock on the door, his fists raised towards the now opened door.

To say that Jeremy was surprised to see him definitely made John release a silent sigh of relief. Well at least, the telepath wasn't aware of his presence until now. He was probably too preoccupied with his conversation anyway.

John put down his clenched fist as Jeremy restored his usual amused face, with a raised eyebrow to silently tell his confusion as to why the fire mutant was there.

"This is my room, too," John muttered, noticing that Jeremy hid his phone on his pocket. "I just forgot my keys so I was about to knock."

"R-right, of course," Jeremy slightly stammered, much to John's absolute surprise. "Uh…get in. I have to be somewhere."

Somewhere to meet that mystery person of yours, John thought. "Where?" he asked, feigning innocence. "It's almost dinner time. Why don't you eat with us first and let me go with you?"

In the exact moment, John watched as Jeremy's eyes widened slightly, moving his eyes away from John before looking back at him with a small smile.

"Nah, I'm afraid you can't come with me today, Johnny," Jeremy answered. "Storm told me that I need to grab the files of the escape mutants from the prison earlier."

He was clever, John gave him that. If he probably hadn't heard his name in their conversation earlier Jeremy's excuse would've made sense. Apparently that wasn't the case, wherever Jeremy was going to, somehow, someway, it also had something to do with him.

The telepath was lying to his face and John had to find out what the truth is. And as much as John wanted to press Jeremy for more info…maybe for now, he'll let it slide.

"Oh…" John said. "I guess I'll see you later tonight then? Or tomorrow morning?"

"Don't go waiting for me, John. I'll be back very late tonight."

John chuckled. "Okay then," he said, putting his hands up in defense. "I'm not some nagging wife over here."

And with that he let Jeremy pass the door, with John staring at his back in suspicion for a few more seconds before heading back to their room.

* * *

**A/N: So again, as promised, I updated. Yay! *cheers***

**Now anyways, I won't be back again for quite a while, so...my advance apologies. **

**I truly appreciate the reviews you guys had sent me the past chapters, keep them going everyone! :D**


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